Mealhada, 4 March 2024 (Agroportal) – Agroportal reported on the meeting of the Steering and Supervisory Board of the RN21 Integrated Project, at which the results of each measure were presented and the main items on the project’s agenda were discussed.

The Steering and Supervisory Board (COF) of the RN21 Integrated Project, the consortium’s highest governing body, met on 28 February at Espaço Inovação Mealhada to address several matters related to the management of the Integrated Project. CoLAB ForestWISE®, the leader of this consortium, hosted the meeting, which also included the first ordinary session of the Advisory Board.

The session was opened by Mealhada municipal councillor Ricardo Santos, Project Director Rogério Rodrigues and CoLAB ForestWISE® CTO Carlos Fonseca, who stressed the “importance of showing the good work being done in this consortium, which must be shared with the partners who follow us”.

More than 20 measures in three pillars

More than 20 measures were then presented, across the three pillars of the RN21 Integrated Project: boosting national natural resin production (pillar I); strengthening the sustainability of the processing industry (pillar II); and positively differentiating Natural Resin and its derivatives (pillar III).

“Resin Tapper Training and Professionalisation” was one of the measures presented under Pillar I, with the main goal of developing an Academy equipped to train resin extraction professionals.

For Pillar II, one of the measures presented was the “Transition to renewables and efficient use of water and energy”, which involves a study and roadmap on best practices for the sustainable use of these resources, in order to minimise environmental impacts.

The meeting also reviewed the status of the “Creation of a ‘seal’ and technical dissemination across the value chain”, under pillar III, which arose from the need to establish Natural Resin as a renewable product that can replace petroleum derivatives and become one of the success stories of the bioeconomy in Portugal. The first phase of brand creation began in the second half of 2023, and some of the next steps for this initiative were presented at the meeting.

Communication and project monitoring

To promote Natural Resin among consumers and business decision-makers, communication and marketing activities have been carried out with some results already visible, notably the podcast and the twice-yearly Resinae® magazine.

The meeting also reviewed the 2023 Interim Technical Monitoring Report on the RN21 Integrated Project, prepared by the Portuguese Environment Agency, which describes the progress made on key performance indicators (KPIs) and the work carried out on each of the project’s measures up to the reporting date. The analysis concluded that the project is on track, given the developments described for its 22 measures.

An independent Advisory Board

The meeting was attended by the members of the Advisory Board, made up of three independent external figures of recognised merit, who will meet annually to give their opinion on the activities carried out, propose corrective measures and promote partnerships. The Advisory Board comprises Aida Rodrigues Garcia, currently coordinator of several projects on non-wood forest products; Álvaro Picardo, Technical Coordinator of the Horizon Europe SMURF project on “Sustainable Management Models and Value Chains for Forests”; and Rui Miguel Rosmaninho, Director of the Department of Public Forest Area Management at the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).

Originally published in Agroportal.