The Cork iNet Scoping Seminar identifies the priorities of the sector in the Mediterranean basin

The Cork iNet Scoping Seminar was held in the city of Olbia in Sardinia (Italy) at Grand Hotel President (July 11, for the meeting) and in Bono (July 12, for the field trip).

As in previous Scoping Seminars, this one was useful to focus on first priority themes and knowledge gaps for this iNet identified by participants, who included forest owners, forest owners, cork industry, research and development, wine industry, national and regional governments and chamber of commerce.

The result of this meeting was the establishment of a series of themes for the Cork iNet such as: production of cork and climate change; pests and diseases; production levels in different countries; chemicals in cork affecting stoppers’ quality; managing different stand typologies; reduction of the peeling period; cork marketing and commercialization; increasing profitability; and how to make the value chain more transparent.

The interactive discussions, the exercises, group works and session dynamics were essential for a very participated cork value chain reflection and useful to identify priority themes to focus INCREDIBLE actions:

• Climate change adaptation and cork oak decline
• Evaluation of Ecosystem services (life cycle approach)
• Profitability
• Policies targeted on multifunctional
• Communication (to consumer, to research, etc.)