PROJECTS

Through revitalising landscapes and cork-producing heritage, the aim is to create an extensive range of nature, active, cultural, wine and gastronomy and industrial tourist products aimed at different niches of the national market and the main European markets from which tourists come to Spain.

This tourist activity should create new opportunities for economic development in rural areas that are compatible and complementary with maintaining the primary (forestry) and secondary (cork transformation) activities as a basis for the sustainable development of the territories.

The project will be developed during 2014 in cork-producing territories in Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla and León, Catalonia, the Valencia Region and Extremadura that are members of RETECORK, as this involvement is the condition for the introduction of the activities that are being contemplated.

Within this framework, work is being done on updating the inventories of tourism resources and their presence on the marketing platforms carried out by RETECORK in 2011; Awareness and training sessions are being developed for tourism agents in each territory for the creation of a product; and a presentation dossier and technological platform is made that will serve to promote these territories to tour operators, the media, opinion leaders, the local population and potential visitors.

CORKLANDTOUR aims to reinforce the work done by RETECORK, intensifying the relationship between micro and small enterprises, tourist agents (both public and private) and possible visitors, to revitalise cork products and their associated heritage. The creation of themed products will also enable the diversification of visitors, will reduce the seasonal nature of visits, creating new jobs (more stable and better quality) and will improve the profitability of the tourist activity.

Objectives:

• The creation of a training plan in collaboration with ELISAVA that allows made-to-measure solutions to be offered to the cork industry.
• Research into new uses of the material, applying design criteria.
• Support to the development of specific products that offer the material commercial openings.
• The dissemination of the use of the material for future advisors (architects, interior designers, industrial designers, etc.) and other interested social agents.

The first training session included a visit to the headquarters of RETECORK as well as an operating cork oak forest and two cork industries in the municipality of Palafrugell: T.E.S.A., dedicated to the manufacturing of cork stoppers for cava, champagne and sparkling wines and Cork2000, an industry that specialises in other cork applications such as insulation, lamination, parquet, do-it-yourself, handicrafts, etc. Other sessions were organised by associations such as the Forestry Consortium of Catalonia, the Catalan Cork Institute and the Palafrugell Cork Museum.

CorkLab was possible thanks to the contributions of:

• Students of ELISAVA who participated in the project and the authors of the proposals: Alba de Armengol, Stephanie Ponce, Pablo Rodríguez, Alejandra Gibert, Eliana Valencia, Karina Arredondo, Daniela Fullenkamp, Beatriz Burgueño, Antonia Marroig, Salem Sinnawi, Beatriz Villegas, Francisco Guerra, Cosma Musacchio, Álvaro Aguirre, Carlos M. Díaz, Maria Vera and Karin de la Vega.
• Tutors at ELISAVA: Mauricio O’Brien, Salvador Fábregas, Martín Azúa, and Oriol Pascual.
• Speeches by professionals and technicians in the cork sector: Lluís Medir, Josep M. Tusell, Manel Pretel, and Josep Espadalé.

The CorkLab concept is dematerialised to materialise and give cork an added value. After the training, work and tutorial sessions, the eight architects, five interior designers, three designers and one philosofer, most of whom are international students, submitted their prototypes.

In this same sense, it is essential to value the most characteristic product of the cork activity, the cork stopper, making the consumer aware of its main values ​​related to the maintenance of Mediterranean forests, its food traceability, its energy efficiency and its capacity to create employment and sustainable development in rural areas.

Global and specifics objective of the project:The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the Network by expanding the number of partners and sensitizing society about the social, economic and environmental importance of the cork sector, through the following specific objectives:

• Expand the number of Spanish members of RETECORK, especially local and regional entities in the areas of Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Comunidad Valenciana, La Rioja, Asturias and Galicia.
• Have a more extensive representation of non-territorial entities linked to the sector.
• Make the objectives of the Network, the importance of the sector and its current situation reach political representatives at the regional, national and European levels.
• Make known to the general and specialized communication media (economy, gastronomy, forestry, tourism, territorial planning, environment, etc.) the indicated objectives.
• Promote a stable relationship with associations with complementary objectives: winegrowers, restaurants, designations of origin, organic products…
• Encourage networking between managers of natural parks and cultural facilities linked to the cork sector, seeking the creation of stable, permanent organizations.
• Participate in dissemination actions aimed at the general public.
• Carry out promotional campaigns for the cork stopper against other alternative materials.
• Evaluate the viability of promoting cork stopper recycling campaigns to support its recovery (natural and recyclable product).

Main activities done:

• Contact with representatives of local administration to propose they join the Network, with political representatives and/or technical managers of governmental departments, with business, consumer, environmentalist, forestry and other associations relating to RETECORK.
• Contact with representatives from national or regional media, of a general or specialist scope.
• Participation in events, round tables, conferences, presentations, etc. nationally and internationally and their dissemination.
• Additions to the RETECORK website information and creation of a database for the generated contacts
• Dynamisation of the Network and support for the design and elaboration of joint material.
• Promotion of the work of the Network among managers of natural areas and cultural facilities linked to the cork sector.
• Realisation of promotion campaigns for corks against the competitors and evaluation of the feasibility and realisation of recycling campaigns.