Informa present at the 9th Spanish Forestry Congress

informa_admin on 2025-06-20

At the 9th Spanish Forestry Congress, our colleague, Celia Yagüe, attended the session MR9: “The value of ecosystem services, carbon credits and biodiversity,” organized by the Forest and Climate Change Forum (Foro de Bosques y Cambio Climático).

This session was divided into four thematic round tables, which addressed the latest developments in the national forest carbon credit market, from the new European framework, currently being developed, to the amendment of the Royal Decree on Carbon Footprint, including proposals for new Enhanced Forest Management methodologies in various projects, such as ECO2FOR and HE SMURF (sister project).

“I would highlight the wealth of perspectives provided by representatives of different key stakeholders: forest owners, public managers, and promoters of forest carbon sinks on the latest developments and some advances in the development of biodiversity credits”, stated Celia.

Some key quotes by thematic round table/stakeholder:

  • Round table 1 – Public institutions / Regulators:
    “We are building a European and national regulatory framework that guarantees traceability, additionality, and sustainability as the basis for the credibility of carbon markets.”
  • Table 2 – Research, technical centres, and certifiers:
    “Developing rigorous methodologies that are adapted to the Spanish context and viable for small landowners is key to democratizing access to absorption markets.”
  • Table 3 – Project developers/forestry companies:
    “The challenge lies in making absorption projects based on adaptive sustainable forest management (ASFM) viable, scalable, and sustainable in a market that is still immature and has high costs compared to other countries.”
  • Table 4 – Forest owners and public managers:
    “Carbon markets represent a real opportunity to finance sustainable forest management in Spanish forests, but they require administrative simplification and reliable quantification methodologies to gain trust.”

For those working on restoration, carbon sequestration, or ecosystem services projects, this session was a real roadmap of the current state of the sector in Europe and Spain.