Resin Extraction

There are some 400,000 hectares of protected pine forest around the hills and mountains of the provinces of Segovia, Ávila and Valladolid here in the region of Castile and León and it is an area where they continue a centuries old tradition of collecting the pine's 'liquid gold'. Historically used, among other things, to light torches and treat burns, nowadays it can be turned into things like plastics, glues, rubber, turpentine and even food additives. It has even been touted as a potential renewable and ecological replacement for oil in some manufacturing methods.

It was in the mid nineteenth century that the forest owners of Castile and León first saw the economic opportunity that the pine resin offered and nowadays, with modern methods such as chemical products to stimulate resin production, the extraction of pine resin has become truly profitable. Today, roughly 95% of Spain's pine resin extraction takes place in Castilla and León, helping provide an economic lifeline for rural communities. The region is also home to more resin manufacturers than anywhere else in Europe and one of the last places on the continent where the practice persists helping preserve both an old Spanish tradition and the pine forests.