By Pedro Garnica, Chairman of ProPopulus
Ten years ago, ProPopulus was founded to gather growers, promoters and users of poplar with the aim of positioning poplar as a strategic raw material. Today we present a new image for ProPopulus and a new website, following our new vision statement for 2020.
We intend to become a knowledge hub and an influencer in the promotion of poplar as a European, highly sustainable and renewable source of raw material that plays a key role in developing the bioeconomy, thus helping nature and society to preserve the future.
We believe, without doubt, that future products will depend on timber, especially when sourced from sustainable plantations, which can provide many solutions not only in terms of supply but also due to the quality of the wood. Gaining greater visibility and influence is a must to raise awareness in society about this.
We are also convinced of the excellent qualities of poplar, that remain unknown to most of society. We want to provide a renewed image of poplar and explain its exceptional qualities. There are significant incongruences today, as the more we develop poplar as raw material, innovating and finding new uses for it, the number of poplar plantations in Europe increasingly decreases over the years.
In building a sustainable economy, plantation wood has a double role: firstly, it can be a substitute for unsustainable materials such as plastic, coal and others that come from non-renewable resources, and, secondly, by adding an extra amount of timber to that sourced from natural forests because forests alone, even if well managed, cannot not keep up with the demand from the market.
The studies carried out so far reveal that the demand for timber will increase, and in the coming years there will be a significant drop in supply. Poplar can be an efficient solution in managing this deficit.
All of these reasons have urged us to update our goals and vision and spurred us in our quest of explaining the benefits of poplar to society.
Finally, I want to welcome everybody to this new website. Here you will find information, studies and initiatives carried out by the association and by our members. Thank you for visiting us, we hope to see you back often!