To this effect, detailed below are Sèlvans’s main milestones and achievements, especially since 2017, thanks in large part also to the ongoing support of the University of Girona:

• The ongoing updating of diagnoses of forests of high ecological value, which make up 2.47% of the forested surface area of Catalonia, covering a total of 33,331.47 hectares, including 1,472 groves which are perfect candidates to be part of a prescriptive network of forests managed by means of natural dynamics.
• Evaluation in 1.49% of centennial and mature forest custody in Catalonia (20,086 hectares / 650 spots), a sufficiently encouraging starting point towards the objective of 5% by 2030 (5% is the average for all the EU nations). Of this preserved surface area, and throughout its different stages, Sèlvans is responsible for the conservation and custody of 37.7% (7,941 hectares and 466 groves).
• Development and application of 13 conservation and custody tools that are flexible and adaptable to the different realities and aims of the forest property.
• Establishment of contact over the years with more than 350 forest properties, demonstrating the willingness towards new approaches that will help preserve the exceptional heritage provided by the most mature forests.
• Deployment in 2020 and 2021 of a demonstrative project in the area of the Transersal Mountain Range, the nerve centre of which is in Sant Feliu de Pallerols.
• Construction of a knowledge base and 357 bibliographical references to the quantification and valuation of the different analysed ecosystem services that are considered of interest to apply to the network of managed forests according to natural dynamics (as a repository in the Mendeley platform);
• Definition and application of four initial valuation instruments for the ecosystem services, involving the private sector and making it co-responsible:
  • the tool “CompensaNatura” to compensation land occupancy, based on the first official impact indicator of an organisation concerning biodiversity (See the European certification Eco-management and Audit Scheme - EMAS):
  • a carbon credit specifically linked to the preservation of the most mature forests (currently being drafted, for the future compensation of greenhouse gas emissions);
  • a network of forests with therapeutic functionality, with their corresponding quality standard;
  • And the dynamisation of the territory,

... as initial instruments that aim to converge in a future “ecosystem credit”, with other ecosystem services likewise integrated, such as the valuation of water regulation and the resilience vis-à-vis the emergency climatic.

Thanks to these instruments, Sèlvans has already involved over 20 companies in the project, contributing a large amount of funding to 13 forest properties for the preservation and valuation of 174.29 hectares of forests of high ecological value through the payment for environmental services system (based on the purchase of wood-cutting rights).

• Consolidation of the health and welfare ecosystem service, which has promoted forest therapy in Catalonia since 2013; having implemented a pilot network of 15 forests in Catalonia with therapeutic functionality; having taken part in the first European study on forests and fibromyalgia; having developed three university extension courses and a 1st edition of a postgraduate course (in collaboration with the University of Girona Foundation).
• Promotion and organisation in Catalonia of the III International Congress on the Forest and its Potential for Health (Girona and Garrotxa, October 2019), involving almost 300 professional persons from 20 countries across the 5 continents. Within the framework of the congress, Sèlvans helped to promote the constitution, at international level, of the International Society of Forest Therapy (ISFT), of which it is founding member.
• Three forums held with a sizeable participation at forest property ownership level (43 forest owners, representing about 9,000 hectared of forest groves that are candidates for a Catalan network of forests, managed according to natural dynamics), 10 local entities, and 16 companies (Sant Feliu de Pallerols, December 2020, October 2021 and October 2022). The three events have evidenced:
  • The progress made from a voluntary and co-responsibility led basis in terms of forest property, for which a network of the most mature forests has become a new resource and a new alternative that makes profitable the multifunctionality of the forest, diversifying the productivity of the forest environment and becoming a revitalising lesson and mechanism of the rural environment. The clear desire among a huge proportion of forest property owners to take part in the valuation formula implemented by Sèlvans.
  • The interest of the entrepreneurial sector in compensating impacts through Sèlvans, meaning increasing the potential to channel new resources from the secondary and tertiary sectors towards the primary sector. The special interest on the part of the companies of having a certified carbon credit is also evidenced.
  • The desire on the part of more than 10 towns and local entities to get involved in the project, including the Micropeople Associtation of Catalonia.
• A synergistic network of more than 139 public and private actors in the territory in recent years, including the Government of Catalonia, the provincial councils, the special protection spaces, and others.
• The establishment of a tight synergy with the German Land of Mecklenburg-Pomerània (pioneer federal state at European level in the implementation of a network of therapeutic forests promoted purely by its administration); and also with the Finnish programme METSO (pioneer at European level in the deployment of a payment programme for environmental services to preserve forests of high ecological value, endowed with €30 million annually); and with international experts.