Interview with forestry coordinator Pablo Angulo

BaumInvest: Pablo, you are our forestry coordinator in Costa Rica, responsible for five locations, some of which are 180 kilometers apart. You are responsible for more than 2,000 hectares of forest – you don’t have to do the job alone, do you?
Pablo Angulo (laughs): No, fortunately I have four hardworking foresters who work on the fincas on site and keep an eye on the work there. I travel many kilometers every week to be here and there, but I couldn’t do everything by myself either. I’m really glad to have a dedicated team.

BaumInvest: What does your working day look like?
Pablo Angulo: I begin each morning in the office, where I get an overview of the tasks ahead. I communicate with the team in Germany, brief the foresters on what has happened in the forests and what is currently pending. I often visit the individual fincas to do inspections.

BaumInvest: What exactly do you do during these “inspections”?
Pablo Angulo: I usually walk through a certain forest area with the foresters in charge, sometimes measuring the circumference of certain trees to see how much they have grown in a certain period. From this, I can then deduce the growth of entire plots. When we have forestry work coming up, we go through a forest plot in advance and select the trees we’re going to harvest. Afterwards, the visits are also about checking whether the work was done as we had previously discussed – and optimizing work processes for the next time.

BaumInvest: What does working in the forest mean to you?
Pablo Angulo: Well, firstly, I love wood as a product. At the same time, I am fully behind the concept of BaumInvest because, on the one hand, we are restoring forests, on land that was previously fallow and almost unusable while on the other hand creating habitats for animals. I have rarely seen deer in my life, but here in our forests they run around in droves. I also enjoy seeing the trees grow, sometimes to breathtaking heights – and then also deliver great wood, i.e. a high-quality product.

BaumInvest: Do you have a favorite tree?
Pablo Angulo: Several. But I find the Almendro very impressive and beautiful, as it can sometimes grow to a height of 40 meters.

BaumInvest: You will experience many beautiful moments in your daily work in the forests. But is there one that is unforgettable?
Pablo Angulo: Visits to the Finca Chicho in Porvenir are great experiences over and over again. Two species grow there in parallel -teak and laurel. Usually, they are competitors, like two motorcyclists during a race. But what is amazing is that they are always on the same level. They grow side by side, always at the same height. For me, it’s a metaphor that everyone here drives at full speed – and above all: everyone is steering in the same direction.