The primary sector, a fresh opportunity for Andorra

The houses of Ejulve, situated over 1,100 metres above sea level, preserve the cream colour of the limestone earth characteristic of the Sierra de Arcos. The streets of the village, in the Teruel district of Andorra, can be a metaphor for life in the area: the steep slope and the narrowness between the walls are attractive to visitors, but they are not very useful for day-to-day life. And then there's the silence. Like the narrow sloping streets, it is pleasing, and even restful, in the right measure. After a while, nothing is more deafening than a sustained silence. To the point that it encourages you to leave, to seek the horizon elsewhere. 

Accustomed to being far from the media spotlight, Ejulve hit the headlines in 2009 when one of the most voracious fires to occur in Aragon had one of its epicentres in the hills around the small town. More than 7,200 hectares of forest were completely razed. On the remains of this devastation, various organisations have launched plans to reforest the land. 

These include Endesa, through the Bosque Endesa Teruel initiative on which it has been working for over five years to restore foliage to 20 of these hectares through the introduction of 10,000 native forest plants. The idea is to generate a mixed mass of holm oak, gall oak, mountain ash, Aleppo pine, black pine, hawthorn, shadbush, blackthorn, rowan and European nettle tree. Because yes, due to the kind of algorithm that generates collective stereotypes as a result of individual experiences or biased media impacts, the idea persists that Teruel is a vast arid area. But the visitor must simply immerse themself in one of the forests that survived the flames to change their mind.

However, the project, which has created work for 29 people from the municipalities of the district of Andorra, aims to go a step further. It is seeking to be a springboard to reactivate the forestry sector in the Sierra de Arcos and Maestrazgo districts, where the population density is among the lowest in Europe (3.1 inhabitants / km²), even lower than in Lapland, always the first region mentioned when this topic comes up. Effective forest management would not only minimise the risk of fires, it would also help curb desertification, boost tourism and create employment and an incentive to settle in places where opportunities are scarce.

The project that Apadrinaunolivo is promoting in Oliete, less than 50 kilometres by road from Ejulve, also depends on the revitalisation of forestry. While the idea is a simple one, the results have been surprising. The aim is to restore olive groves that had been neglected by their owners because most no longer live in the area, having emigrated with their families to other parts of Spain or Europe in search of work. And what this organisation does is sign a lease and management contract with the owners for the land in exchange for a share in the profits from the production and sale of olive oil. Support for this initiative features prominently in Endesa's socio-economic plan with the award of the Andorra Fair Transition Hub. Since 2014 this impressive project has created 16 permanent jobs and made 15,000 olive trees productive.

The aim is ambitious. to restore 50,000 trees in Oliete, Alacón, Alloza and Ariño, some of which are beautiful specimens that are over one thousand years old, and extend an oil press, irrigated vegetable gardens (including in the gaps between the panels of the new solar farms planned in the area) and a canning factory. In total, almost one hundred jobs. A revolution, a permanent return for a mining territory, accustomed to living on what it extracted from the earth. Part of the solution is to go back to the beginning. Only now the seam is on the surface. In fact, it was always there.