Forest

Public administrations directly manage a road network on forest land that in many cases is longer than the general road network itself.
Wood transport is a key factor in the value chain of wood mobilization.
There is therefore a need for reliable knowledge of this network, so that resources can be optimised and rationalised in terms of maintenance and improvement, that is to say, the rationalisation of the processes of inventory, planning, programming and control of the work on these tracks must be emphasised.

The lack of digital cartography with sufficient quality in rural areas is a constant in most territories. Together with a certain delay in the application of technologies in the sectors that operate in this area, they make these areas a priority objective on which to concentrate this type of effort.
This cartography allows to plan more effectively the operations related to the harvesting and transport of wood, from the forest to the industry.

Since 2009, Cesefor has directed and developed the project co-financed by the Regional Government of Castilla y León and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Within the framework of this project, more than 50,000 km of rural roads have been inventoried and more than 33,000 equipments have been collected, forming a continuous network connected to the road network with extensive qualitative information on forest areas.
The information has been collected by GPS, attaching the necessary qualitative information in each case.
Specific cartography has been distributed to environmental agents, fire extinguishing media dependent on the Junta de Castilla y León and the digital information is available at the Junta de Castilla y León.
A specific navigator has also been developed for rural roads, since due to the special characteristics of this network it is necessary to know the existing restrictions, either by type of vehicle or state of the tracks.

The eMonte Operational Group, made up of the Madeira Cluster and the Design of Galicia (CMD), the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), E-Monte Forestry Solutions S.R.L. and Manuel Graña, was created in order to allow all the agents involved in the Galician forestry sector to carry out the tasks in a simpler way, from the application of ICT. The GO project works around www.eMonte.es, a new online portal that facilitates the purchase and sale of lots of wood between forest owners / communities of mountains and end companies.

This project started to work on August 2017 and since then, more than 150 wood batches have been purchased through its website. Besides, the success of this project (and the App) has allowed to create three more tools to help all the actors of the wood value chain: a web portal to sell forest properties, a tool to estimate the volume of wood of a forest and another tool to group small owners and helping them to sell their wood together

E-MONTE is the first Galician platform that facilitates the purchase / sale of stand trees. Its role is to unite forest owners and end companies. E-MONTE offers the owners a showcase in which to sell their wood. Once a batch has been published, the owner ensures good visibility, saves unnecessary travel and maximizes the results of the sale. With E-MONTE the paddling companies know all the available wood batches. Through the platform, they can access the characteristics of each batch before moving. Once they decide to enter a lot, they can do so without having to be accompanied by the owner through the E-MONTE APP. This allows them to save on personnel costs and travel expenses.

The forestry activity in Castilla y León is one of the most important in the forest Spanish context in terms of size and balance between the different agents and aspects of the value chain, in terms of productive area, production and productive potential, and variety and type of products. The globalization and duration of the economic crisis, affected the decrease of resources, this raised business difficulties and changes in the current management model. The programme was proposed as an instrument to stimulate economic activity and the development of the forest management.

In progress

The first objective is to increase the value of sustainable production, the productivity of the forests and the sector in the region. This would improve the main economic and employment parameters linked to the regional forestry sector. The programme development has allowed increasing the market of wood in Castilla y León.

Many forests that could generate income are not really managed and forest-owners don´t take care of them. The causes are very often the low profitability of wood exploitation and the complexity of its management. Forest owners are not usually specialists and are not engaged in forestry activities. This leads to no incomes and to an increased risk of fires and pests. Faced with this situation, Agresta proposes specific contracts to forest-owners, making it possible a professional sustainable management allowing revenues, forest planning, wood mobilization, and infrastructure and silvicultural operations.

Forest management is not enough to get many forests out of abandonment. It is important to be in contact with main stakeholders and the reality of the markets, something that a forestry company can assure.
It is necessary to work with professionalism, entrepreneurial vision and long-term commitment, in a collaborative relationship and win-win with the owner.
The specialization in turnkey forest management by a company allows improving and making profitable the management since it increases the innovation capacity, including the technological one (management software, forest inventories with remote sensing...)

Taking into account environmental and heritage issues of sustainable management