UPM Forestal Oriental - Social and Enviromental Report 2014

Our environment

On average, 65% of the land is cultivated, less than 10% is affected by infrastructure (roads, fire areas, etc.) and the remaining 25% is maintained in similar conditions to the previous usage. The productive blocks are not necessarily all together, but are distributed depending on soil types.

BIOLOGICAL DATA

Classification of types of environment

Biodiversity

of species and, in particular, rare, threat- ened or endangered species. These sites are where conservation and monitoring efforts are focussed. After nearly 25 years of different studies and surveys, we can see that for both plants and native tetrapod fauna, around 50% of the species are recorded on the company’s plots. These species are mainly present in the company’s unplanted areas (be they reserves or not) and to a lesser extent also within the planted areas. This means that the plots operate as a large network of natural or semi-natural areas where native species find the right conditions for their development, perfectly comple- menting the official conservation areas.

Natural environments are the result of the interaction between the climate, geology, soils, flora and vegetation of a region or area and therefore vary de- pending on these characteristics To classify the types of environment, UPM Forestal Oriental uses a methodol- ogy based on the use of satellite images, information about soil groups and a digi- tal terrain model, generating basic analy- sis units that are grouped together and classified according to their similarity. On the one hand, this methodol- ogy allows us to classify types of envi- ronment according to their degree of threat at a national level, facilitating the management and conservation of those considered most vulnerable and, on the other hand, it allows us to analyse the in- ternal and external connectivity between environments with a greater degree of naturalness, as well as reconsidering the location and size of the company’s re- serve areas.

UPM Forestal Oriental promotes much more than the planting of eucalyptus. Through our work we seek to create spaces so that pre-existing natural or semi-natural environments can maintain their characteristics and become appro- priate areas for supporting various envi- ronmental uses, including biodiversity. A forest plot is in reality an area where productive areas with a high in- tensity of use coexist alongside intercon- nected natural areas. The latter are often productive but also maintain their tradi- tional use of livestock farming. Biodiversity, understood as the rich- ness of species and the presence of differ- ent types of environment, is analysed and evaluated in accordance with the scale and distribution of the company’s plots. The analysis ranges from the general (large bio-regions in the country) to the specific (the plot) and identifies those plots and sites that are most relevant from the point of view of the presence

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