3.- Activate private owners and cooperative forest management

The aim of the project is to propose a simple tool, free to use, with adapted services for the novice forest owners and allow the mobilization of wood from small private forests. Professionals in the forest and wood sector will also be able to access this tool in order to find information on the legislation and manage forest worksites by completing online procedures. The tool is used to facilitate forest management between forest owners and enterprises. Owners can locate their forest plots on an online map with a cadastre and then describe their stand using a question and answer system. They can also contact neighbouring owners using a form. An owner can request a quote online for forestry work from information on their stands. Professionals have the possibility to carry out their administrative procedures online. The owner follows the progress of his forest worksite on the platform. The module for estimating wood prices has an educational purpose in order to explain price formation. Finally it is possible to access a directory of professionals and publish an ad to sell or buy plots. All these services are on a national scale, but specific and regional information is provided to the forest owner. At the end of 2020, more than 3300 accounts had been created.

The scheme started in 1932 to ensure finances for rejuvenation after harvesting forests. Later, several forest measures have been added to the scheme, and the share of income to be disposed of has been adjusted. Now, the forest owner decides for him-/herself how much to set aside, within 4-40% of the sales revenue. The money is not taxed when it is set aside, but 15% of the money used from the fund is taxed. The forestry fund belongs to the forest property and should be used for silviculture, forest roads, forest inventory, production of Christmas trees, courses for the forest owner or employees, environmental measures, and the establishment and expansion of bioenergy plants. The forest owner is not given interest on the contribution to the forestry fund. This money is used to manage the scheme, and measures that will benefit the forestry community, e.g. information to forest owners and schools, development projects etc. The Government considers the scheme to be one of the most important measures in the forestry.

The preservation of forest functions and the supply of a region with the renewable resource wood require new strategies for forest owners, which they can only implement in cooperation with various partners. Answers to these challenges are to be developed within the framework of this pilot project, for which the political district of "Graz-Umgebung" was selected for Austria, on the basis of a sustainable wood mobilisation chain and climate-fit forest management. Timber mobilisation in private forests means mobilising forest owners and getting them interested in climate-friendly forest management. Because of property protection, additional wood mobilisation can only be achieved in cooperation with the forest owners. An essential step in the project is to point out exemplary small-scale forest managers who have been exploiting their wood utilisation potential for generations in the form of active family forestry. Under the motto "We make our forest climate-fit", active small-scale forest managers are brought into the public eye as climate-fit ambassadors.

The main objectives are:

• Establish continuity in the support and advice of forest owners
• Increase wood volumes from the project region
• Targeted public relations measures in the urban environment to generate a positive perception about the need to manage our forests
• Establish an advisory and support structure that can be ensured without public funding beyond the project
• Further development of digital offers for forest owners

Virtual forest 2.0 is a research and development project that has developed a digital application to enable the visualization of forest resources and spatial data in 3D. A virtual forest is software that can be utilized in participatory land use planning, advising forest owners, and taking into account the goals of user and interest groups in the areas.The virtual forest can be used to increase citizens' understanding of different forest management options and to illustrate the landscape effects of a forest plan. The virtual forest can be used to visualize the holdings of any forest owner, and the application is compatible with various information systems in the forest industry.The virtual forest 2.0 uses open QGIS geographic information system to generate changes in forest patterns or tree data, habitat data and terrain data in a virtual 3D-visualization.  The free downloadable Virtual Forest 2.0 application was released in October 2020.

Small-size private-owned forest areas are common in Portugal in particular North of the Tagus River. Small patches of forest hinder proper forest management, often leading to increased unmanaged areas more prone to wildfires, pests and diseases. The Baixo Vouga Forest owners association has developed a program of forest area aggregation to tackle this problem by grouping of contiguous areas with the overall aim of facilitating management operations. This will consequently reduce the occurrence of hazards, improve and increase well-managed areas, increase return and motivate investment. To implement the program, at least 5 forest owners with at least 5 properties, summing-up no less than 10 hectares are rquired. Then a GPS-based inventory is carried out and a forest management plan is developed. The program is based on quota-based investments and revenues that will be distributed among those involved with the aim of increasing the engagement, motivation and appreciation of all the agents involved. So far, several areas have been aggregated covering different number of forest owners (e.g. Panasqueira, Águeda, 15 properties belonging to 12 forest owners were aggregated resulting in c.a. 11 thousand ha of forest planted and managed under the same forest management plan) and there are other, more ambitious, still ongoing (e.g. in Lavandeira, Vagos, 211 properties belonging to 138 forest owners were aggregated resulting in c.a. 73 thousand ha).

Private foresters had a lot of quantitative data thanks to the data accumulated by the National Forest Inventory for more than 20 years, as well as information on the structure of the private forest thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture's survey in 1999. But they did not take into account the behaviour of forest owners. In 2009, the network for observing the behaviour of forest owners was launched by the CNPF and Fransylva, with the financial support of France Bois Forêt. The objective is to collect new information on the behaviour of forest owners, particularly regarding the management of their forests according to their forest area and the region where they live. In the surveys, the same behavioural trends of forest owners appear: sentimental attachment to their wood, environmental responsibility, heritage to be valued and source of economic income.

The main outcomes include so far:

• Surveys carried out by telephone to owners of more than 4ha of wood cadastral land with a duration of 15min
• 2500 people interviewed throughout France during the surveys
• Other surveys for specific studies at a more regional level (risk perception, climate change,...).  
• The results of the surveys make it possible to create new management tools for forest owners and new distribution media. They are also used to improve the advice of technicians in order to better take into account the expectations of forest owners and encourage them to mobilize their wood.

Woodsapp is a digital platform designed to serve both forest owners and forestry organizations through two complementary solutions: a mobile app for landowners and a professional tool, Woodsapp Pro, for service providers and organizations.
For landowners, Woodsapp is an easy-to-use mobile application that brings forest status, tasks, and professional contacts directly to your phone – no matter where your forest is located. It makes forest ownership easier, more transparent, and more productive – especially when managing the forest remotely.
Developed by a Finnish company with a strong forestry technology background, Woodsapp is already available in Germany and Austria, with expansion underway across Europe. The app is designed to help forest owners manage their assets more effectively, address climate-related risks such as insect outbreaks, and stay connected with service providers and other stakeholders through transparent collaboration and easy communication.

What do you gain as a forest owner with Woodsapp?
- Know your boundaries and find your way: See your property location and borders of neighbors accurately and use the app for navigation in the forest
- Check forest health at a glance: Get real-time insights into forest condition and changes through satellite monitoring and official map data sources
- Get alerts early: Receive automatic notifications about early-stage risks detected by satellite monitoring – helping you plan timely actions.
- Keep everything organized: Tasks, notes, photos, and documents are saved on the map – no more scattered papers or lists.
- Easily share your information: Share your stored data, including location and attachments, with forestry professionals using Woodsapp in their organizations.
- Stay up to date: Receive location-based news, guidance, and support opportunities directly in your pocket – tailored to your specific forest area by relevant organizations.
- Work in the ground even with poor connection: app includes offline mode to work fully in offline.
 
What does Woodsapp Pro offer to organizations and service providers?
- Reach a large number of scattered forest owners easily and in a targeted way.
- Share timely information, such as available subsidies, recommendations, or upcoming operations, directly through the app.
- Manage fieldwork, send updates, and track task progress in real time.
- Keep customers updated about the statuses of the agreed tasks automatically with notifications
- Collect data from the field through mobile app (also offline mode) and receiving tasks with all the info needed (location, files, images, maps)
- Communicate effectively with landowners and teams - Centralize task-related information and reduce the need for emails or phone calls.

Mobile applications offered by different forest companies offer the possibility to observe your forest estate and forest assets on the mobile phone. The forest data is in mobile phone for private forest owners and it´s easy to log in with the bank's online banking ID.

The change of the business environment aims at better competitiveness and cost-efficiency in forest management. Mobile applications are an excellent way to encourage forest owners to take care of their forests.

Forest owners can download mobile applications to their smartphones from the internet. The application includes information about the forest assets, maps, and other key information that may be needed in the field. The application also works without a network connection.
For example, Metsä Group’s members are able to update their growing stock information by taking photos with their mobile phones. The photos are transferred for analysis in a cloud service, and they are used to calculate the growing stock information. This way when walking around in their forest estates, forest owner can update their growing stock information and request a quote to sell wood or buy forest management services right there on the spot.

With the application you can:

• view forest farm maps and aerial photos
• browse pattern information
• review the proposed measures
• acknowledge the actions taken, in which case the tree data in the pattern will be updated
• send a message to the forest expert
• take action on the request for quotation that you send from Metsäverkko.fi
• update pattern tree information with Trestima (Android only)
• navigate from one pattern to another, for example, to see urgent work
• add a note or photo to a specific location

Metsään.fi provides eServices for forest owners and forestry service providers. The online application shows the maps, forest information and, silvicultural and cutting possibilities of each forest estate and their compartments:

1. Soil and forest site type
2. Growing stock
3. Treatment proposals for a five-year period
4. Natural values (habitats of special importance)
5. Latest maps and aerial photographs with compartment borders
6. Annual growth. 

Metsään.fi also allows forest owners to apply for subsidies for improvement of young stands and declare notifications of forest use (e.eg. cuttings) by filling e-forms instead of paper ones. In addition, forest owners can contact forest service producers via the system. Metsään.fi is quite easy to use and it provides the forest owner many new flexible services, e.g. e-forms for applying subsidies. It’s a safe system, although being a public one.  A strong identification of the user is needed, use of Suomi.fi e-Identification is safe and provided by the state. Suomi.fi e-Identification contains a list of the identification tokens for example using online banking codes, mobile certificate or certificate cards

The Finnish Forest Centre collects and maintains remote sensing based data of forest resources covering the private forests. Metsään.fi is a free portal using that forest data for serving forest owners and forestry service providers. It has been found to encourage forest owners to carry out silvicultural works and generally for developing forest businesses. 

Metsään.fi in numbers in early 2020: 13,5 million hectares of forest data in the service, 108 765 forest owners have visited the service, 942 service providers have joined the service, 2461 operators use the service, 8,4 million hectares available to operators, 537 706 consents available to operators.