PROYECTO MICOSYLVA: ESTRATEGIA, OBJETIVOS, PARTENARIADO, ESTRUCTURA

Fernando Martínez-Peña. CIF Valonsadero. Junta de Castilla y León.

Micosylva is a research outcome transfer project designed to promote sustainable and multifunctional forest management in Europe by integrating and enhancing the ecological and socio-economic functions of edible wild mushrooms. Financed by the European programme INTERREG IB SUDOE, the project has an overall budget of Euros 1.8 million and draws together eight European partners and 24 associate members from Europe, the USA and Canada.

The project has been co-ordinated, directed and monitored by a steering committee made up of each partners’ representatives, alongside an International Scientific Committee; key in consultancy, monitoring and evaluation of project operations. Regional technical committees and specific working groups have also been created in each participating region, bringing together environment managers, scientists and technicians from each region to drive forward the change in management model and adapt it to the requirements of each region.

The Micosylva project has enhanced an international network of 18 micosylvodemonstrative areas, where specific experiments to demonstrate silvicultural management of mycological resources have been performed in different types of forests of south-eastern Europe. To convey the latest scientific advances in mycological resource management to environment managers, students and the general public, the scientific-technical committees of the project Micosylva have worked on a series of practical and informative documents which have been developed into manuals adapted to the requirements of each participating region.

Numerous initiatives for training, sharing information and awareness-raising have been provided by the Micosylva project, directed mainly at forest owners, environment managers and universities. Six scientific meetings have also been held in Lesponne (Midi Pyrénées, France), Soria (Castilla y León, Spain), Solsona (Catalonia, Spain), Pamplona (Navarre, Spain), Tanmies (Dordogne, France) and Mértola (Alentejo, Portugal). Micosylva has also been represented at two international conferences: Quebec (Canada) in December 2009 and IWEMM6 (Morocco) in April 2011. The project has been promoted through open days, technical visits, press articles, radio and television appearances and the website www.micosylva.com which features all relevant information.