By Miguel Ramírez López (Tragsatec/MITECO).
On the 20th of October, as part of the 8th Annual Meeting of the European Integrate Network, a practical exercise was performed at Monte de Valsaín marteloscope using the I+ software by 46 participants coming from 13 different European countries, including 2 representatives from the European Commission.
After a first welcome at Boca del Asno (Segovia) by the managers of Valsaín forest, from the Spanish National Parks Autonomous Agency (OAPN), all participants followed them on a nice hike towards the marteloscope, crossing the Eresma river on our way.
We soon arrived at the marteloscope, where Javier Donés Pastor and José García Gámez (OAPN) told the group about the Valsaín forest: its background, its management, the main challenges the forest face and therefore also them as managers. A fascinating discussion on these topics follows, fostered by the varied experience held by such a diverse group of participants.
Then, the practical exercise was introduced, giving each participant a printed copy with some guidelines (see below) to ease the process: how much volume to extract, from which species, for what purpose, etc; in line with the cutting plan of the current management project.
Being such a big number of people, we were divided into smaller groups, distributed around the marteloscope and performing the exercise only in one quadrant. Each group was given a tablet with the I+ software installed and the marteloscope downloaded, so everything was set up to start the cutting simulation exercise.
Finally, once the practical exercise was over, the different teams met again, sharing impressions and comparing their results, which are saved on a report and stored on each device. Interestingly, and despite all groups followed the same guidelines, the results of the exercise usually differ between different groups. This, on the other hand, makes the debate around them more interesting.
Of course, we couldn’t leave the place without a group picture. The Spanish chair wants to thank once again all the participants for their exemplary behavior and engagement in all the activities during this Annual Meeting in Spain. Hope to meet again soon!