43% of the EU surface is covered by forests and woods. These spaces constitute a set of fragile ecosystems that contribute to the fight against global warming.
Timber is the product of the forest that arises spontaneously, but forests also provide a great variety of non-wood forest products such as cork, resins, aromatic plants, medicinal plants and edible products such as nuts, berries, mushrooms and truffles.
Non-wood products play an important role in improving the livelihoods of populations living near forests and involved in their harvesting, processing and trade. The enhancement of these products therefore allows to create new opportunities for the development of local economies.
The mastic pistachio (Pistacia lentiscus L.) is a common shrub in the Mediterranean woods. Its fruits, first red, then black, are used in a traditional way to produce an oil with multiple therapeutic virtues, but resin can also be obtained from it and essential oil from the distillation of the leaves. The plant, which is relatively anonymous in the northern Mediterranean, on the other hand, contributes significantly to the reduction of poverty in the communities of rural forest areas on the southern shore.
MED'Lentisk is an Erasmus+ cooperation project, in which the Provence Model Forest participates with Tunisian, Turkish, Greek, Italian partners, on the enhancement of lentisk pistachio and more particularly the production of berry oil.
In this context, two joint learning events will be organized to create a reflection process between the partner organizations and the involved and interested actors, allowing to discover this shrub and its non-wood forest products.
The first event of the project will be held from 29 June to 2 July in Chania, Greece.