Chapter 6 - The sustainable management of cork production

Abstract

The sustainable production of cork is the basis for the whole cork chain from the forest to the consumer. The role of cork oaks in environmental protection against soil erosion and desertification and in preserving biodiversity, as well as in the social and economic framework of the countries involved has triggered them into the limelight of environmentalist concerns. Considerable efforts are now being put into new cork oak afforestation in southern Europe using seeding and planting, as well as in promoting a sustainability oriented management. The management of the cork oak has to take into account not only the requisites for sustainable trees and ecosystem but also the industrial objectives and requirements for the product, in terms of quantity and of quality. Modeling of tree growth and cork production is therefore an important tool and knowledge of production-related variables, such as the cork growth index and the productivity, and of management variables, such as intensity of cork stripping and cork cycle duration allow better estimates of production.