The exploitation, transformation and commercialisation of the cork gave rise to the most importing manufacturing activity in Girona’s counties during the 19th century and first half of the 20th, and its influence on the territories it was established in survives to this day. Cork activity has left a forest sector of great environmental wealth as its a legacy, posing important challenges involving forestry and landscape management and ecosystemic-service maintenance. It has also left an important tangible (including a landscape and urban planning modelling for cork activity) and intangible heritage (from culture and ethnography to the gastronomy) to be preserved and valued. The sector today has to face problems such as climatic change, the outbreak of pests and competition from synthetic substitutes in the industry, although also it can make the most of the new opportunities offered by technology.
The Chair aims to become a platform for studying, external projection and dissemination of cork activity and its history, as well as its environmental, heritage, social, economic and cultural wealth.