Cork oak forests are important natural carbon sinks, and also regulate the hydrological cycle, protect against erosion and fire, and foster biodiversity on a par with regions such as the Amazon rainforest, Borneo or the African Savanna.
The cyclical extraction of cork uses a process that does not damage the trees, maintains the vitality of the cork oak tree and fosters the associated economic, environmental and social development, enabling thousands of people to continue to live and work in arid and semi-arid regions. This three-dimensional contribution means that cork is a paradigm case of a sustainable raw material.
Cork harvesting is manual work that requires in-depth knowledge of technical skills and the forest. As a regular and cyclical process, it creates continuous activity and ensures that people can continue to inhabit areas at risk of desertification. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that more than 100,000 people are economically dependent on activities related to the cork oak forest.
The cork oak forest plays an important role, among others, in global climate regulation, fire prevention, hydrological regulation and soil protection, due to its multifunctional characteristics, together with broad biodiversity. Its important role as a carbon sink stands out, since harvesting has a negligible effect on the total carbon storage and the cork oak tree can live, on average, for 200 years.
The cork oak forest provides a series of economic, social and environmental benefits. Cork generates the most valued products in this ecosystem, mainly due to the production of cork stoppers. This raw material is also used in several other sectors of activity and has tremendous economic and social relevance, including in particular its contribution to job creation and local development in rural areas.