A Panda da Dá farm, owned by Finsa since 1989, has been a testament for three decades that it is possible to produce wood while also conserving ecosystems. The project, which was always conceived for the long term, is now entering a new phase: transitioning from responsible forest management to promoting positive impacts that can revitalise rural areas by connecting local resources, value chains, and various stakeholders.
To this end, in March 2024, Finsa and the RIA Foundation, an independent non-profit agency that contributes to research, analysis, and strategic territorial planning in Galicia, launched a comprehensive plan to analyse the current state and future prospects of the property. The initiative included a competition of ideas to select an architectural project that would also function as a planning tool.
As the finishing touch to the active year of collaboration between both organizations, the foundation inaugurated an exhibition at Casa RIA on May 28, 2025, detailing the history of A Panda da Dá over these 30 years and the work carried out between 2024 and 2025 with the foundation: how the estate was analysed and the masterplan was drawn up that “read the landscape, identified resources and defined shared needs”, according to the introductory text of the exhibition, and how this joint work gave way to the international ideas competition, in which, they assure, the most relevant aspect is not which project won, but what made the entire process possible: “attracting multiple high-level professional perspectives, activating debate on the future of the property and creating a common basis for action”.
The exhibition is structured into four laboratories (forestry, planning, connections, and design), which “apply each phase of the process and show how the wood chain can generate added value and protect the land, , the RIA Foundation notes on its website.
As a complement to the exhibition, which will run until July 5, a series of parallel activities are also being held that delve deeper into several related topics: three roundtable discussions: one on the reality of forest communities, another on territorial ecosystems, and another on art and territory. There will also be a visit to A Panda da Dá under the title Experiences – Inspiration, Innovation, Learning.
In short, it’s a complete program to celebrate and share the collective knowledge that has emerged thanks to the competition and also after these decades of management. Furthermore, the exhibition and talks propose a look toward a future in which wood production and the conservation and stimulation of ecosystems coexist, thus reactivating and repopulating rural areas.
