Innovasions ledning, digitala hubbar, kluster

Heat entrepreneurs produce heat for customers by using renewable solid bio-fuels. In recent decades this operational model has become more common in Finland. Different skill sectors have formed around heat entrepreneurship such as training, research, consultation and equipment production. A heat entrepreneurship knowledge cluster has been built in South Ostrobothnia Finland.

The HECSO development project has assembled the heat entrepreneurship knowledge cluster of South Ostrobothnia. The knowledge cluster has been made to utilise, in many different ways, the companies located in the region, other actors in the region and the internationalisation of the whole province.
A principal component of internationalisation is the knowledge cluster’s training package on heat entrepreneurship, which is on offer to interested foreign target groups. Vocational Adult Education Sedu is responsible for the training. The training package lasts for one week, and is compiled through co-operation with the Finnish Forest Centre and regional heat entrepreneurs and machine and equipment manufacturers.
Heat entrepreneurship is the production of local renewable energy, where an entrepreneur or company sells heat at an agreed price to a user. In the best scenarios there can be many heat purchasers. Heat is conveyed to the customer from the heating plant by a district heating network. Generally the fuel is the entrepreneur’s own forest or locally procured wood, but it can also be wood refining by-products, wood for re-cycling and peat.

The knowledge cluster consists of heat entrepreneurs, heat entrepreneurship units, research, training and the supply of machines and equipment for the whole production chain. The knowledge cluster can also be utilized internationally by offering knowledge and training opportunities to foreign target groups.

Strengthen the regional wood value chain incl. sales promotion thereby enhancing the regionally potential added value. Initiation and expansion of networks between industry and science along the value chain Forest-Wood-Paper. Initiation of expert rounds on particular topics, regional projects and cooperation’s. Enhancement of the political framework. Process optimization between different actors and within these. Monitoring of cluster activities Every player of the wood value chain from the forest owner to the end consumer is an important factor in the work flow and plays a crucial role for overall success and positive development. Actors in the wood value chain need to know as much as possible from the upstream and downstream actors (ex. stock, products, delivery times, facility possibilities). Close cooperation between partners is needed to facilitate interaction and enhance the efficiency of internal processes and the whole process chain Closer collaboration between the different actors in the wood value chain. Better knowledge of the mutual strenght, the products and the services provided by each other. Regional connection of the wood value chain and sales promotion thereby enhancing the regionally potential added value. Limit the increasing wood import. Competitiveness enhancement of all actors of the wood value chain. Positive effects on labor situations in the wood value chain in the region. Strengthening the wood sector as an important economic factor. Enhancement of sustainability through the exploitation of the potential annual wood increment. Fostering the climate change adaptation potential of forests by reducing rotation period

Knowledge transfer for climate sensitive forest management
Continuous education efforts, awareness rising, workshops for practitioners and interested people to convince them for an actively managed forest especially focused on the climate change items.
First of all small-scale private forest owners (about 70.000 in A with less than 5 ha) and new forest owners (not directly connected to farms and farmland) shall be informed about an active sustainable forest management (harvest).
On the other side consumers will be encouraged to use wood and wood products as much as possible

Small-scale private forest owners may be re-interested in forest management when they are properly informed about the challenges of climate change and adaptation.
Dissemination of knowledge has to address a broad public at its needs on a general level to raise awareness significantly
Top down initiatives always have to be supplemented with bottom up approaches to raise their effectiveness

National campaign 20126 - 2021
“The use of wood is good for the climate – we make forests climate fit”
Central messages – climate change creates new realities
#1
Climate Change is a fact – and it affects forests
#2
Paris Agreement enforces the signatories to move from talking to doing
#3
In Austria, temperatures increased by an average of 1,8 Deg C in the 20th century, with increases being recorded at all altitudes
#4
A crucial factor to make forests fit for climate change is adaptive forest management
#5
The forest- and wood-based sector plays a key role in climate change
#6
The efficient use of wood as a renewable raw material and energy carrier includes a considerable reduction in anthropogenic carbon
#7
Mitigation: the harvesting potential should be fully utilized considering general sustainable conditions to mitigate climate change
#8
Adaption: it needs active sustainable forest management practices in order to create stable and vital forest stands which withstand climate change induced disturbances, e.g. storms, diseases and droughts

SAXMEL intends to become a novel highly systematized and protocol-based approach aimed as a solution to contribute improving current forest management practices acting at local scope. SAXMEL consists of a catalogue of services composed of identified key processes considered essential to solve major problems affecting forest resource development. Also it includes some inner processes and procedures aimed to steer the system itself functioning such as resource management, communication, financing & founding, ...SAXMEL has been conceptualized based on some key mainstays: participatory approach, transparency, self-sufficiency, selfgovernance, territorial persistency, technical criteria-based, local scope.

1- Providing solutions to and gaining interest from public administration is a failed task as their functioning are far from efficient, transparent and sound
2- There is a great need from private stakeholders towards integral solutions to forest resource problems, this has been checked on several territories
3- SAXMEL´s concept approach is valid preliminarily, although implementation needs to be broadly validated.

Currently the solution is under development, being piloted in the municipality of Gondomar (Pontevedra, Galicia) thanks to broad support from 80% of comunity-scope forest landowners. There is an approved regional operational group as well as a national operational group stilll both pending from funding.