CORDIS

WOODNAT objective is to boost Walnut economy. The project should make it:
- Competitive, European Walnut to be competitive to the American Walnut
- Profitable, European plantations to be profitable for landowners, making possible to boost rural economy, and
- Sustainable, Traditional European Forests of Hardwood to be preserved by means of a realistic and profitable business case.

The problem is:
- Walnut is a slow growing species with long-term returns
- The American Walnut has traditionally ruled the market, not the European Walnut
- Up to the present, private and public experiences on growing European Walnut did not fully succeed.

The main objective of the Project is to address is a 2nd generation model for Walnut economy in Europe. The overall objectives are:
- Improved plants
- Sustainable management
- Competitive transformation
- High-quality wood

The actions of the project refer to improvements along the value chain:
- Seeds. Plant selection in order to define a European Walnut genetic, which is more resistant and grows faster.
- Nursery. Developing a method to make possible the up-scaling of walnut plant production.
- Plantations. Defining and spreading a profitable and sustainable model for European Walnut plantations across Europe.
- Log supply. Developing tools in the field of TIC for a more efficient communication between producers and consumers of European Walnut Wood.
- Log transformation and wood quality. Developing products, quality definitions and robotic tools based on the specific characteristics of European Walnut and suitable for the existing market
- Re-growing trees. Developing a bio-method to avoid re-grow of Walnut trees

The Project is important for Europe because:
- Contributes to the circular economy
- Promotes local species
- Is focused on high added value products and mature markets that are big and stablished
- Develops knowledge in the field of genetics and biotechnology
- Involves the whole value chain

Tasks performed so far:
- Sharing of genetic material between partners: BOSQUES NATURALES, CREA and INDUSTRIAL PLANTS and in vitro production of plants.
- BOSQUES NATURALES and INDUSTRIAL PLANTS developed the optimization of plant production achieving higher survival rate. They also developed trials on mycorrhization achieving a higher number of leaves in the early stages of growth.
- ECM worked on the selection of fungal species to degradation of tree stumps. Therefore, more than 1000 trials were carried out in different locations.
- SEISTAG and ASIMOV have developed and tested a Robotic Veneer Handling System which reduces the costs of manipulating narrow wooden products
- LOSAN has produced European walnut veneer and has identified two paths for added value products (dyeing and vaporization)
- CREA tested the hardness of different walnut products
- INDUSTRIAL PLANTS succeed producing European walnut at lab scale and is ready to scale-up the production of European walnut
- WAF developed the logic structure and back-office for the APP under the technical descriptions of BOSQUES NATURALES
- BOSQUES NATURALES has designed three new plantations of European walnuts to be established following three different models in three different countries

Social activity:
- Kick-off meeting in Santiago, on October the 26th 2016
- Meeting with Project Officer in Santiago, on October the 26th 2016. It included visiting industry.
- General Assembly in Mantova, on June the 13th. 2017. It included visiting plantations and industries related to the material.
- Presentation at coordinator day in Brussels, June the 22nd 2017.
- General Assembly in Madrid, on February the 19th. 2018. It included visiting plantations.

Public outputs:
- Sylvicultural manual with more than 60 pages.
- A manual of thinnings has also been released.
- The project website, flyer and others.
- Up to 14 public presentations within the wood industry, furniture designers, and sectorial fairs

Technical outputs:
- CREA and BOSQUES NATURALES output a Geographical Information System with the small plantations (mean surface 3.2±2.9 hectares with a total surface of 202.0 hectares) considered in Spain and Italy. Therefore, 96 plantations were sampled, 79 in Italy and 17 in Spain.
- ASIMOV and SEISTAG output a Robotic Veneer Handling System fully operative, which reduces the costs of manipulating narrow thick veneer items.
- 100% of the deliverables originally planed have been submitted on time.
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PROGRESS
- The use of hybrid nut has shown advantages in terms of yield and quality of the first log.
- The high input model for plantations (irrigation and mono-specific plantation) is economically and environmentally less feasible than the Italian widespread mixed and polycyclic models. This second model can become a valid purpose for the new plantations in Spain.
- The evaluation of logs could make possible using walnut wood for the production of parquet. The potential refers to producing small tables without serious defects. This opens a possible destination for wood coming from young or small trees or logs deriving from thinning.
- Thin veneer production could be feasible for small diameter logs taking advantage of 100% softwood logs to support dyeing processes as the beaching process can be afforded.
- Colour modification by means of vaporization could make feasible using young trees as it darkens the material.
- The first experiment on biological degradation of walnut stumps has been performed. The results will improve the knowledge about the efficiency of fungal strains in two ways: (i) walnut stumps degradation, and (ii) regrowing control and edible mushrooms production. The quality of the experimental design and the further statistical analysis will allow publiching the expected results in journals of the highest scientific level.

IMPACT
- An improvement of the market of walnut wood; which would affect many plantations in Spain and Italy that need a thinning and others that show a low productivity.
- Connecting the small and medium owners with the same need represents an economic advantage for the owners. Allocating these assortments to a market of higher value than that of biomass.
- The implementation of more sophisticated cultivation methods (hybrids clones, polycyclic and mixed plantations) useful to improve yields and quality and decrease production costs in new future plantations.
- A renewed interest of all the actors along the value chain of European walnut
- Using fungi for stopping stumps regrow means lower costs of stumps treatment and also a more profitable activity which includes producing edible mushrooms production. It also means using organic treatment instead of chemical or mechanical stump removal techniques and improving biodiversity in walnut plantations.