In October 2022, the Balmaseda Mountains became a fireball, the most serious fire in the last 30 years, and the strong hot winds, summer drought and the third leg that is never mentioned, the monoculture of pines in the communal lands managed by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, joined for the disaster.

Of the 500 hectares burned, 426 correspond to mountains of public utility, mainly monocultures of pyrophilic species, directly related to the size of the fire and that allowed the advancement of the flames. A perfect storm. We cannot solve the problems by thinking how we created them, but the Foral Council of Bizkaia continues with the same recipe. The result can be repeated for the future.

The public-private project “Basoa Bizi”, which was published in the press last week, will boost replanting and social awareness.

Let's go to public data, who are the drivers? Diputación de Bizkaia, Ayuntamiento de Balmaseda, BBK Live and Fundación Basoa. Two public institutions, one private and the other mixed. In this project, as explained in the press, (‘Basoa Bizi’ will revitalize the burnt forest in Balmaseda in 2022 Naiz 2024-02-05 / Balmaseda joins forces to repopulate the burnt forest a year ago. The promoter of the festival BBK Live will invest 100,000 euros El Correo 2024-02-06) seems that Basoa Bizi will be the savior of all the burnt forest and not so: Of the 426 hectares burned in Balmaseda, only 17 will be revegetated in March, i.e. 4%, it is not a little, but it is not intended to suggest.

Furthermore, the data of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia indicate that the replantations of 2023 and 2024: They replanted a total of 235 hectares (66% of coniferous pine, 18.6% of hardwoods and the remaining 15.4% unspecified). These data show the Member's willingness to continue the production of coniferous wood, giving up the conservation of its forests. We believe that this decision is very serious, because public institutions must be exemplary and pioneers in these times of climate emergency, at least in public soils. They must promote the conservation of forests, not the production of wood through monoculture, which is clearly contrary to European environmental criteria.

The main driver of this project “Basoa Bizi”, the BBK Live, also wants to sell CO2 bonds as tickets for the music concert, when we all know that when a plot is grown with conifers of production, it is cut to 25 or 30 years. Planting, cutting, transport and processing processes do not reduce CO2, but increase, be clear; only mature, indigenous forests for conservation ensure the positive CO2 balance.

The forest is not something we plant to whitewash the trash generated by a concert by BBK Live, 7 conifers and 2 beech trees, the forest is biodiversity, it is soil generation, it is water protection, it is food, it is irregular production, it is a space for our integral health and much more. All this is known when the Provincial Council of Bizkaia praises the “Ecosystem Services” of the Forest, but one thing is to say and do the other.

We are not in favour of bleaching anyone’s pollution, let alone providing money and public land to the private sector and continuing with an obsolete monoculture model. We are for living forests, and you?