On November 26, 1983, I was born in Totana, at the foot of Sierra Espuña. From the beginning, I felt an irresistible attraction to nature, its ecosystems and mountains, and especially its forests,…
On November 26, 1983, I was born in Totana, at the foot of Sierra Espuña. From the beginning, I felt an irresistible attraction to nature, its ecosystems and mountains, and especially its forests, but it wasn't until well into adulthood that I discovered how this passion should shape my professional life.
In 2003, after finishing my secondary and high school studies, I enrolled at the University of Murcia, in its Faculty of Economics and Business, to study business administration. From these studies came what I considered my first adult job, starting my career in the banking sector. I worked at entities such as BBVA and La Caixa from 2007 until August 2017, when I decided to definitively leave that sector. Ten years were more than enough to realize that I did not want to dedicate my professional life to a sector that did not fulfill me at all.
In 2012, I began studying as a Higher Technician in Forestry and Natural Environment Management, in a distance learning mode, to be able to combine it with my job as a banking administrative. Since then, I have never stopped training in the forestry sector, in institutions such as the University of Córdoba where I studied a postgraduate degree, at CENEAM, through the Autonomous Organization of National Parks of Spain, and other centers like the Forestry Training Center of Vadillo Castril (Cazorla) or PROFOR. I have accumulated hundreds of hours of training in areas such as degraded area restoration, QGIS, forest biomass, forest fire investigation, PRL forestry sector, etc. To this, I must add constant self-taught training, based on observation, research, and experimentation, which have been the pillars of my professional career where I have not taken anything for granted.
In 2017, I got my first job in the forestry sector as a foreman at Natursport, recovering historical trails and environmentally significant areas around Sierra Espuña. This work led me to others in the heart of this mountain range, recovering the historical, forestry, and hydrological heritage of these forests.
After experiencing firsthand the negative impact that forestry work has on the environment, which, on the other hand, is essential, I decided in 2020 to start my own business to implement what everyone thought was impossible: non-mechanized forestry. In Sierra Espuña and on my own, I carried out the first non-mechanized modern forestry project in Europe, demonstrating its technical and economic viability. Following the success of this project, in 2021, I founded Forestales de San Francisco with Mamen Baeza. Since then, we have completed more than 20 non-mechanized projects, and we continue. We have applied forestry in areas of high ecological value, performed hydrological-forestry corrections on the most sensitive soils, restored trails over a century old, and given new life to old water installations, all without machinery, oils, emissions, or noise, in a manner respectful of the landscape, the ecosystem, our workers, and ourselves.
Currently, I am above all a father who wants to leave a sustainable future for his daughter, a future full of forests and nature, and I want to do so through my work as an Environmental Agent for the CARM, and especially through Forestales de San Francisco, where I direct the technical part of the projects working hand in hand with my wife, Mamen Baeza, and a professional and committed team, with new projects and promoting this sustainable way of working with the environment, respectful of the people who work it, and economically fair and viable.
