Gestión forestal, silvicultura, servicios ecosistémicos, resiliencia

The European Life Forest CO2 project aims to promote carbon compensation projects in forests as a tool to mitigate the carbon footprint of companies or public authorities.
A company wishing to compensate its CO2 emissions can finance a project to improve carbon sequestration in the forest through 3 types of operation: planting in an area under agricultural decline, restoring a dying or damaged stand or improving an existing stand by thinning.
The CNPF connects forest owners who wish to carry out forest operation with companies wishing to finance forestry projects. CNPF calculates the accumulated carbon gain over a certain project period.

The owners are the only ones to bear the extra costs of forestry operations that improve atmospheric carbon sequestration and thus limit global warming.
To develop this new means of helping reforestation or afforestation, it is essential to make companies aware of the role of the forest.

The company subsidises part of the work, the rest being borne by the owner. In Nouvelle Aquitaine, as part of Life Forest CO2, a project was carried out in Dordogne on an area of 1 ha between a private forest owner and a public hospital establishment.
Europe gives grants to the CNPF for the work of establishing contacts and drafting carbon contracts in France.

Easily assess the sensitivity of forest soil to increased biomass harvesting. The owner or manager must enter soil characteristics into the digital or paper application, which indicates the sensitivity level for several mineral elements.

This tool allows more intensive forest management to be applied in areas where the risk of soil depletion is low. It is necessary to train forest owners to describe soil horizons.

This tool is complementary to the ADEME's guide "sustainable forest slash harvesting" of 2006 which indicates how to describe the soil (type of humus, soil texture, pH,...) and gives management recommendations according to the different types of sensitivity.
This application takes into account the pedoclimatic zone, humus type, pH, soil texture and prospective depth. The soil is described 25 cm deep. The result of the analysis gives 3 sensitivity levels: low, medium or high applied generally to the soil or for each mineral element (calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen).

Spatially explicit GIS-method and a collection of tools to assess the energy wood biomass availability and transport costs at regional level to any given end-use location. In the process the technical harvesting biomass potential, local competing demand and the wood resource balance are assessed. The transport costs from the grid of supply points can be viewed as a function of transport distance. Also, different future growth and demand scenarios can be included into calculations thus providing a valuable decision support to investors of energy wood industry.

Most customer projects differ from every other project in some respect. Calculation methods need more or less adjustment.

Results from the analysis: 1. Numerical (GIS) maps of biomass potential for any given timber assortment, biomass demand and wood resource balance (e.g. balance of small trees, see picture above).
2. Graphs depicting transport costs as a function of distance. 3. Spreadsheets of the result data used for graphs. 4. Summary report of the results for the customers.

For more information, see the reference.

In drinking water protection zones (DWPZ) it may be necessary to transform forest stands which are not site-conform into more stable stands. During this process it can occur that the tree species which are not site-conform become a source of wood through the specific silvicultural transformation strategies. The amount of achievable wood is medium, as the timber-cutting activities have to be in line with the requirements for DWPZ. In Austria the main tree species in such situations will be Norway spruce (Picea abies). In DWPZ the amount of timber (wood) achievable through forest stand transformation strategies can be given but is limited as the guidelines for silviculture in DWPZ have to be applied. Hence no clear-cut activities are allowed there. Despite this fact it will be necessary to transform homogeneous spruce plantations into more stable forest stands. This process will release a limited amount of timber (wood). Cutting of Norway spruce in DWPZ which grows on sites which are not adequate for it in terms of forest ecosystem stability could yield medium amounts of wood. This process of cutting Norway spruce on sites of e.g. beech forest hydrotopes will last until the forest transformation is fulfilled. In all cases the guarantee of forest ecosystem stability is more important than the amount of timber yield. Hence the quantities of timber released in DWPZ will be limited in all cases.

Wood of exceptional quality of various tree species can be sold at the timber auction. First, trees that have high quality timber and are suitable for felling need to be identified with the help of local forester. After the delivery of logs to the place of auction about one month before the event, potential purchasers have 14 days to give offers for the selected timbers. The timbers are then sold to best tenderer. On the day of the open door, the public can view the logs and the prices reached. High quality logs can be sold to purchasers who will offer a slightly higher price than other wood. However, higher profit may be achieved at auction of timber. Purchasers are looking for timber of precisely defined quality and are willing to pay more. It is possible to reach very high prices at the auction and that can be a motivation for forest owners to invest more interest, time and work in their forests. In the year 2018, 3094 logs were offered by 447 owners, 993 offers were submitted. 90% of logs were sold for over 857.000 € to purchasers from Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Croatia. The highest price reached at the auction was 11.833 €/m3 for ribbed Acer pseudoplatanus.

Action plan “Wood is beautiful” is an operational document for increasing the competitiveness of the entire forest-wood value chain. The document defines wood as a strategic raw material of Slovenia, which has a lot of unexploited potential. The action plan sets out the objectives, measures, indicators and deadlines for intensifying forest management and for the revitalization and development of wood processing and the energy use of its residues. Due to the interdependence between all individual areas, all the measures foreseen should be implemented. This way the document can contribute to the competitiveness of the entire forest-wood chain, job creation and high added value in the Slovenian wood processing industry. Key objectives of the action plan are to create a market for timber products and services, to increase forest management and conservation in line with forest management plans, to increase the amount and processing of timber at higher levels of difficulty with new technologies, to create new jobs and growth in added value per employee in the wood processing industry. The action plan again places Slovene wood processing industry among strategically important and promising industries with a sufficient amount of domestic raw material.

Forest owner association (FOA) Pohorje-Kozjak is voluntary, non-profit and independent association of private forest owners established in 2007. Main aim of FOA is to increase the sustainable management of private forests and strengthen the economic power of forest owners in accordance with the law. Main tasks of FOA are education of forest owners, consultancy on management and sale of wood, assistance in applying for calls and giving comments on legislation. In the year 2012, a forest owners cooperative (FOC) was set up in order to expand their activities to the rave of business integration.

FOC Kozjak-Pohorje is an example of good practice expansion from the societal activities to the level of business cooperation in a forest cooperative. The comparative study reveals, that members of FOC are on average younger, they have larger forest properties and are better educated than members of the FOA. Also, the interests of members in FOC and FOA are different;  socio-educational reasons are the main driving force in case of FOC, while among FOA members interests are predominantly economic in nature.

The purpose of FOC is primarily a common appearance on the market, which in turn accelerates the economic benefits of its members and increases the competitiveness of forest owners on the market. On the long term, the plan is to increase the purchase quantity of wood and conclude long-term contracts with sawmills. The FOC also established a logistic center for supplying the residents with heat, produced from woody biomass. The next planned step is the investment in boiler rooms, establishment of social enterprise and sale of heat to final consumers. In addition, members of the FOC carry out logging and harvesting activities for forest owners and state forests. In the period from its foundation to date, the operation of the cooperative is stable and positive.

The significant increase in the number of forestry contractors in last few years has been increasing competition, however at the same time requires a reflection on the objective quality of contractors. In sustainable management of forests, the criterion for the selection of contractor should not be only the lowest service price, but it should include also environmental, social and business aspects of the relationship between the client and the contractor. Platform MojGozdar (MyForester) enables the integration of all stakeholders in the forest-wood value chain, including providers of forestry services, users of services (forest owners, forest managers) and administrators of basic data bases about business entities. It is a transparent and objective web-based information system for assessing the suitability of contractors, who perform work in the forest. The methodology for evaluating is consisted of an automatic assessment of the formal suitability of the forestry contractors and direct evaluation of the service by consumers.

Detailed description is available at http://www.crojfe.com/site/assets/files/4529/triplat_77-90.pdf

Machinery ring is a social organization that offers support services for farmers and forest owners. It is a form of the use of machines between farms based on mutual neighborly assistance. Members of a machinery ring are owners of agricultural and/or forestry machinery and they can also provide services to other members at prices agreed. The machinery ring ensures coordination and dialogue between service providers and users.

Experience of the first years of operation show good results. The amount of work increases year by year. Forest owners are provided with a comprehensive service, from harvesting forest trees to selling timber, processing residues in wood chips and selling chips. They are able to achieve better prices at market. The machinery ring is a good and innovative example of linking forest owners, which by increasing efficiency and professionalism enables increased mobilization of wood from private forests, better silviculture of these forests and higher returns for individual owners.

Forest owners have access to high-quality hardware that cannot be afforded by individual owners. The machinery ring also provides expert advice and the purchase and sale of wood, including biomass for heating, and agricultural services. In the framework of the machinery ring, the training of owners for work in the forest and professional excursions are organized in cooperation with the Forest Service. The members also receive various discounts when purchasing forestry equipment. To make better use of machinery and work on a larger scale, they set up a limited liability company SK Servis, which deals with felling, harvesting and sale of wood, the production and sale of wood chips and the construction and maintenance of skid roads.

Silvicultural approach that early selects a limited number of target trees to which ensure a free and harmonious development of crown and trunk. The thinnings are selective or from above and they are oriented to remove the direct competitors of the target trees, preserving the remaining stand. The target trees are chosen as a function of vigor, stability, tree morphology, spatial distribution. The number of released target trees (from 50 to 120 per hectare) depends on the site characteristics, the species, the biotic and abiotic risks, the type of owner, the silvicultural goal. · This approach can be applied in high forests and in coppices, in conifers (as Pinus nigra and Pseudotsuga Douglasii) and broad-leaved species, to social (Fagus sylvatica and Quercus sp.) and valuable (Castanea sativa) or sporadic tree (Prunus avium, Sorbus sp., Fraxinus sp., …) species, in public or private property. To apply this method is necessary: Specific training and care of technicians and workers from tree marker to logging Specific training of people involved in the control of the forest utilization. · From an economic and productive point of view: decreasing the management costs reduction of rotation time increasing of quantity and quality of assortments production of high-quality timber relatively quickly enhancement of phenotypes and / or species potentially able to produce quality timber - From an ecological and environmental point of view: increase of individual and stand stability increase of biodiversity increase of structural complexity maintenance of an irregular canopy cover protection of sporadic species - From a social point of view: integration with the traditional forestry increase of non-wood products increase of landscape value