Chaco hosted a working space that brought together the productive, business and governmental sectors that seeks to boost the sector through innovation and sustainability.
A Forestry Innovation Workshop was held on Friday 7 March at the Gala Convention Centre in Resistencia. This event was organised within the framework of the initiatives Green Impact and Verified Forestsfunded by the European Union and implemented by European Union organisations. Chaco Networks.
The meeting, which brought together stakeholders from the sector including civil society and business organisations, representatives of the European Unionthe Italian Chamber of Commerce in Argentinapublic universities, the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Enterprises (CAME), Forestry MSMEs, provincial governments, the national government, and science and technology institutions, created a space for dialogue and coordination to promote forestry development with a view to sustainability and strategic commercial links.
The day featured two high-level panels, one entitled "Local Agreements for Global Partnerships", and the other entitled "Verified Forests: Technology and Timber Innovation for Argentina-EU Trade Linkages".".
In the first session, a presentation was made on the strategies for approaching the initiative. Global Gateway. During his speech, Olga Baus-GibertThe role of civil society organisations as bridges between production, environment and social issues was highlighted by the Deputy Head of Unit of the European Commission's Directorate for International Partnerships, who pointed out that initiatives such as Green Impact and the consolidation of productive hubs are key to structuring sustainable development in the Norte Grande Argentino.
"For the past two years we have been promoting a new way of cooperating, combining financial instruments with private sector investments. We are interested in how we can boost the ecosystem around investments, ensuring that they are inclusive and respect environmental, social and governance standards," he said.
The second, meanwhile, focused on the presentation of Verified Forests which merges the forestry-wood business ecosystem with the latest digital technologies, to accompany SMEs on their path to sustainability and global success, developing a traceability system that will allow greater transparency in production chains, ensuring that sustainable practices are verifiable and reliable, as required by new regulations in the European Union and other international markets.
This project is led by ACDI together with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Argentina and CEDETEMA, and is supported and funded by the European Union's AL-INVEST Verde programme.
Agostina Nicoletti, director of CIDA, said: "The challenge is that these digital technologies are for the sector to continue to grow and also to ensure that this forestry agenda that was born today at this meeting, with the gathering of so many actors, can scale and be a solution for forestry SMEs working throughout the country.
Strengthening opportunities
At the meeting, there were also working tables where attendees were able to discuss the reality of the sector, current and future projections.
During the conference, opportunities to strengthen the relationship between Argentina and the European Union in the forestry sector were highlighted, promoting the development of new technologies, sustainable business strategies and the integration of innovation in the production chain.
In this space, the public from the different provinces of the Gran Chaco Argentino met in different working groups to contribute to the construction of real solutions to the challenges faced by the sector, under the following lines of action: value addition, markets and business; research and technological linkages; financing, incentives and biodiversity.
Under these premises, this successful first meeting of the Forestry Innovation Hub built a multi-actor public and private space to promote collaboration and innovation among forestry-industrial actors in the Norte Grande Argentino and to promote a strategic alliance with the European Union, aligning strategies and resources for sustainable development and competitiveness.
This workshop reaffirmed the importance of international cooperation and commitment to sustainable forest production, positioning Chaco as a key player in the regional and global sustainable development agenda.
SME-EU Business Meeting
In this context, Bosques Verificados held a Trade and Technology Liaison Meeting exclusively for forest SMEs from Chaco and Trade Advisors from the European Union.
Participating forestry companies of native wood, producers of various goods such as: tannin, hand tools, parts, tables, chairs, bahiut, dimensioned wood, charcoal, pellets, briquettes, sleepers, boards and planks, firewood, rods, rods, braces, fingerjoint boards, palo santo oil, houses, sawn timber and wood flooring.
The following EU Trade Counsellors received the forest SMEs: Dario Savoriti from the Italian Embassy in Argentina, Marie-Eva Becquet from the French Embassy, Isabel Schmiedbauer from the Austrian Embassy, Nadji Bilík from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and María Victoria Ehret from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.
In this way, each forestry SME was able to present its product offer to the representatives of the different EU countries, in search of building new commercial opportunities together and also to generate new cooperation links to establish technological ties.
The Commercial and Technological Linking Meeting was organised by Bosques Verificados with the support of Impacto Verde, Redes Chaco and the EU Delegation in Argentina, proving to be an excellent opportunity for companies to connect directly with the European Union Embassies, promoting the expansion of SMEs in Chaco towards international markets and technological improvement.
