Rosewood

Forest Sharing (FS) aims to enhance the forest heritage through the creation of an innovative platform, able to facilitate the meeting between players in the forest sector, planning an ethical and sustainable forest management. This service is mainly proposed for abandoned or unmanaged ownships, re-launching integrated management in order to obtain an environmental and economic benefit, thanks to the use of innovative technological tools.

We made several public test in not “forest” conventional places, such as shopping center and exhibitions, and we met there forest owners that have decided to subscribe the application to enter in FS.
These tests were important to validate the service and the idea behind FS. It is necessary to organize a system that allows managing multiple properties together, and reducing the time spent by the owner, for each step of the supply chain.

The first results underline how people are interest in this new approach, especially those that have a forest proprieties that at the moment are not-manage. FS have start to create a networking between all the different actors in forest sectors. Forest Sharing platform have networking different owners and more than 1000 hectares of forests are in connection. Thanks to FS now forest owners are associate and in the last month they apply for founding. Some of the proprieties and forest managers had benefit from the application of technologies tools implemented by FS. Through the social networks FS have obtained a wide interest of owners, forest technician and forest companies working in logging and no logging activities.

The coop. Eco-Energie was born from the Baglioni family farm. To survive in the italian firewood market, characterized by strong unfair competition, the owner decided to innovate their approach to forest works. After 5 years of study, he has decided to invest in a gradual but consistent manner in the production and sale of wood chips, diversifying at the same time the production also focusing on naturalistic engineering. From 2015 the company also directly manages a district heating system through a turnkey service, the so-called contracting.

Eco-Energie is characterized by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and propensity to risk. This is demonstrated by the huge investments in mechanization, training and the search for new solutions such as contracting activities.
This seems to pay off: diversifying end products derived from the wood normally used, increasing productivity through better organization, gradually investing in the use of advanced mechanization and focusing on the training of employees seem to be firm points from which many companies in the sector could start again.

The growth of Eco-Energie has been impressive: the company currently has more than 20 employees and continues to invest in new machines and equipment. They are numerous, the training activities of the employees (also in the field of security) and contracts increase, multi-year contracts for the supply of wood chips to existing plants.
However, management problems arise and organization related to spaces, to guarantee an even better product in less time.
Thus the need to acquire oneself has arisen a biomass platform: a logistic center covered where to sort the material, store and dry the wood and chips and sell the products also to the retail.
From this cooperative a new company (Etruria Energie - www.etruriaenergie.it) was born recently (2016), which offers a turnkey service for the installation of renewable energy plants, in particular from wood biomass, for public and private users.

The Forest Funds en Limousin is a regional structure that acts as an interface between forest owners and financial contributors. It manages financial flows and handles requests from forest owners requesting assistance.  This private initiative was initiated by Fransylva in Limousin (Limousin forest owners' syndicate).

By the end of 2017: 180 hectares of plantation have been validated by the Forest Fund in Limousin and 90 hectares are still under study.

In return for their financial investments through the Forest Fund in Limousin, companies and local authorities are awarded the "I love the Limousin forest, I support it" label, enabling them to communicate to their clients or employees about their interest in preserving the environment and fighting climate change. The sums paid by companies are tax deductible because the share is considered sponsorship. The forestry works eligible for aid are plantations or forest improvements. The minimum surface area of the forest sites must be 1 ha.

Adeli is an interprofessional association whose objective is to bring together neighbouring private owners in order to set up sufficient site units to trigger stand improvement operations and equipment work (storage area, wood loading area). Adeli's technicians, partly financed by the region, help to define the appropriate silvicultural interventions, constitute grouping files and carry out site receptions. Thanks to this animation, the stands are put back into management with dynamic silviculture that will eventually produce quality wood.

Thanks to Adeli, the overheads and prospecting costs of economic operators are reduced. Cost implementation of volumes mobilized is 3-4 € m3 depending on the files.

To initiate a grouped site, it is necessary at least 3 owners, for a site surface of at least 8 ha (4h for hardwoods), within a radius of 2km. Owners and operators must commit to a sustainable management certification system and pay membership fees: €25/year and €250/year respectively.
Once the grouping is completed, aid is provided by the region for owners ranging from 200 € to 500 €/ha for stand improvement. For aid for the creation of equipment, the maximum aid before tax is € 6500.
The sites implemented by ADELI mobilize 650 ha of stands every year, 50% of which are deciduous for a wood volume of 45,000 to 50,000 m3.

It is a handbook on the practicability of forest plots. The machines work all year round in the forest and sometimes in unfavourable weather conditions. With an average cutting period of 6 to 10 years, soils have little time to recover in the event of major impacts. Soil compaction and rutting can cause productivity losses on the nearest trees. The handbook aims to give recommendations at each stage of the forest site and for each actor in the mobilisation of wood.

The guide aims to improve the quality of forest sites and consequently to make wood cutting more acceptable to the general public.

The handbook contains 23 recommendations throughout the wood mobilisation chain: during forest management, before the forest site, during the site, after the site and in the company. For example, it indicates to the owners the good practices to adopt to avoid a too important impact of the ground during the building site, like knowing the feasibility of the grounds, the elements of the ground, and the sensitive zones.

The CIFA is a regulated savings product, subscribed with Crédit Agricole, whose objective is to encourage wood mobilization by creating financial savings.  
Any natural or legal person who owns forest plots that have taken out storm risk insurance can build up savings.
A CIFA can be opened with a financial institution holding a deposit account or with an insurance company.
The funds placed in this account come only from the income from logging and will be used to finance work to reconstitute forest plots after disasters (health, climate, weather or fire-related risks) or routine forestry work (brush clearing) for the prevention of these risks.

CIFA helps improve sustainable forest management and requires owners to take out storm insurance. It promotes logging and therefore mobilisation by allowing 3/4 exemption from wealth tax and transfer duties.
Without the CIFA, an owner who cut his wood was taxed 100% on the ISF. To keep a tax advantage, he left his forest standing without cutting. The CIFA then makes it possible to market wood that would have remained standing.

Owners can invest up to 2 500 €/ha of insured forest. They can withdraw at any time up to 30% of the total sum of the CIFA per year for current works and up to 100% for works following a disaster. To open an account, the owner must have an insurance certificate, a sustainable management document and a notarized property certificate.
The remuneration is fixed in the contract. In Aquitaine, the CIFA of Crédit Agricole d'Aquitaine sets a rate of return of 2 to 2.5%/year.
The duration of the contract is 10 years.
It allows 75% of the sums deposited there and the interest they generate from the sale of timber to be exempt from wealth tax, gift tax or inheritance tax. The tax benefits are then the same as for standing forests.

The Caisse Phyto Forêt, a South-West France forest protection and provident fund, was created at the initiative of the South-West France Forestry Syndicate in 2013 to provide concrete phytosanitary solutions for the Landes de Gascogne massif. The purpose of this association (law 1901) is to act in matters of uninsurable phytosanitary risks. The Caisse Phyto Forêt is working on the development of a method to prevent the contamination of stumps and healthy trees by the fomes, a root fungus that causes significant damage to conifers by reducing the quality of the wood and causing mortality in stands.

Currently, the dosage of the blue dye recommended by the manufacturer does not allow, in certain cases, to sufficiently color the product and to verify the correct application of the product. It would be necessary to multiply by 3 or 4 the dose of dye necessary, meaning an additional cost for the operator and thus the forest owner.
Operators and contractors must undergo training to obtain a plant protection product certificate (CERTI-PHYTO).
It is now necessary to communicate more widely with the foresters of the massif in order to encourage them to treat the strains and stem the spread of contaminations.

In order to avoid contamination of the stands, the treatment against fomes is applied to each cut of wood (depressing, thinning, and clearcutting). The product to be used is a powder to be diluted in water containing spores and mycelia of a fungus endemic to the massif, the Phlebiopsis gigantea natural strain VRA-1835, with an antagonistic action to the development of the resinous fomes. The only one approved in France is the Rotstop, manufactured and sold by AROLE. As the mixture is colourless, a blue dye should be added to check the correct spray on the stumps.
Application must be made within 3 hours after cutting, either by manual painting or mechanical spraying by adapting systems at the harvester head: using a guide spraying the product through holes distributed along the guide, or with a nozzle that sprays the product in a single outlet. The solution is then spread over the stumps when the trees are cut.
Loggers need to equip their machines with one of two systems to automate processing.
Treatment can take place throughout the year and to be effective, 80% of stumps must be treated.

MOVAPRO is a program developed by the CNPF to create decision support tools for forest owners in order to mobilize "additional" wood from non-exploited resources). The challenge is to balance in the value chain while preserving sustainable forest management. To meet the growing needs of wood energy users, it is necessary to assess the potential for mobilising additional wood.
In 2014, the first site monitoring was carried out in Aquitaine and Normandy in order to identify the weak points of the wood energy harvesting sites and to know the operating costs and purchase prices of the wood.
The objective is then to evaluate and remove the obstacles to the mobilisation of wood energy.

It is possible to extend the CartoMovapro tool to other territories but it is necessary to have information on the status of the forest track.
Once finalized, the database will provide a landowner with more information to guide him in his silviculture choices and encourage him to harvest his wood and return his stands to production.

The 3 tools developed are:
• MOVAPRO Diagnosis: sheet to be completed in order to draw up an inventory of the site: infrastructures present, presence of regulatory and environmental zoning, assessment of wood quality,....
• CartoMovapro : GIS tool that identifies and analyses the difficulty or not in mobilising wood according to 5 criteria :
- the slope
- the presence of forest under sustainable management document
- constraints related to regulatory zoning
- obstacles such as ditches,...
- longshoring distance.
The results are in cartographic form, indicating levels of difficulty in mobilization.
• The database of work costs and wood prices: tool whose purpose is to collect and share data on wood purchase prices, reconstitution work costs, operating costs and to link them with the data provided in the MOVAPRO diagnosis. This database is currently being developed so that it can be used by all CRPF technicians at national level.

A network of 42,000 km of DFCI tracks covers Aquitaine. In the Landes de Gascogne, the service network is the largest with 3.38 km per 100 ha of forest. These trails have a dual interest: fire fighting and access to forest sites for forestry equipment. They serve as firebreaks between forest plots and facilitate access to both fire and rescue services and logging operations. These forest tracks were created and are now maintained by DFCI's 241 ASAs (authorized syndical association) as well as private and public owners.

There are currently difficulties in renewing volunteers in these ASAs that lead to a loss of technical knowledge. The legislative and accounting context is becoming increasingly complex, which can become an obstacle to owners' involvement in the management of ASAs.
The regional Association of Aquitaine DFCI leads and accompanies the network of volunteers, particularly in the preparation of grant applications and public contracts.

DCFI’s ASAs are registered trade syndical associations of forest owners with the aim of maintaining infrastructure of collective and public interest at common expense. The ASAs are public establishments, under prefectural supervision, managed by the owners. They became compulsory throughout the Landes de Gascogne massif following the 1945 ordinance. An ASA has a delimited perimeter where all owners located inside become members. The ASA has work done to create and maintain tracks, ditches, water points and drilling. A contribution is required from members in order to finance the operation. The rules concerning the eligibility of owners for this contribution are laid down by the ASAs. Taxes average around 2.5 to 3 €/ha/year. Currently 2,500 volunteer forest owners are involved in the ASA, coordinated by the DFCI Aquitaine (association law 1901).