2n número de la revista "FORESTS DELS POBLES" d'ELFOCAT

The Association of Local Forest Owning Entities in Catalonia (ELFOCAT) groups local public entities with forest heritage or closely linked to the forestry sector of Catalonia.

In Catalonia there are almost two hundred (194) municipalities that own forests, which accumulate a total of 365,727 hectares of forest ownership (more than 18% of the entire forest area of Catalonia), a very high quantity, which makes the municipalities, as a whole, are one of the main actors in forestry management in Catalonia, both for the property they represent and for their public administration nature with forestry competencies at the local level.

The municipalities make use of and forestry improvements from their ordered forests, thus generating a regular and periodic economic activity that employs many forestry actors located in rural areas. In addition to these productive functions, many of these forest lands are found in protected natural areas of very high quality, which are fundamental in the protection of catalan biodiversity, and, in general, they generate innumerable benefits to the society and nature, in its protective and social functions: biodiversity, landscape, leisure, water quality, carbon storage, etc.