MISTRA DIGITAL FOREST ANNUAL REPORT 2020 1
FORESTRY PLANNING SOFIA SJÖDIN "Systems that hand
le uncertainties better, would reduce the need for duplicate measurements" Sofia Sjödin is head of forest planning at Holmen Skog. She welcomes planning systems that deal with risks and uncertainties. – Just like other forest owners, Holmen wants to ensure sustainable use. Among other things, for us this means that the forest must generate a high timber yield over time, given the frameworks that exist – everything from natural environment considerations to the age class distribution of the forest. It takes about 80 years to grow a harvest-ready stand – that timescale must be taken into account when we investigate what sustainable harvesting might look like over time, says Sofia Sjödin. She explains further; – Plans that extend over many decades are associated with uncertainties and risks. Storms or insect infestations can rapidly change the conditions. Ideally, our planning systems would take into account, or at least quantify, these risks. Then we can make decisions that result in a more efficient use of the forest, and at the same time we can plan and act in a way that compensates for unwanted risks. How does Holmen work with risks and uncertainties today? – Currently, the uncertainties in the forest estimates mean that we do not base decisions on single data sources. Although we have several types of data, we compensate by planning all forestry measures in the field. In our long-term plans, we ensure that we always have a margin in the form of larger available felling volumes than those we have decided to actually harvest. Having methods that manage uncertainty in a better way would reduce the need for double measurements in the future, and mean that we could deal with uncertainties in a more sophisticated way than by always having large stocks, Sofia Sjödin concludes. Towards forestry data in the biorefinery of the future The biorefinery of the future will be able to use forestry data to plan production and use the raw material even more efficiently than is being done today. One part of Mistra Digital Forest is involved with the exploration of these opportunities. A summary of the Nordic region's wood-based biorefinery facilities, and their capacities, was delivered in 2020. – In addition, we have collaborated with other EU countries in the programme, and contributed to a joint report from CEPI which includes all the biorefinery facilities in the EU, Norway, the UK and Switzerland. These two reports describe the current situation, which we take as our starting point going forward, says Mistra Digital Forest's programme manager Sverker Danielsson, who is leading the work. The focus of the work now underway, is to identify some possible correlations between forest data and industry relevant properties and to test these in an industrial company. For example, Skogforsk has extensive knowledge and experience of building property models based on harvester data, aimed both at the sawmills and their processes, as well as at the pulp mills and the most important fibre properties. Researchers from Skogforsk and Södra will investigate similar correlations between forest and industry. – At Södra, we have high expectations of this work, and hope that we will be able to use all the available information about the forest raw material to achieve more efficient industrial processes. But we also hope for the reverse, that industrial requirements can influence the control of the flow of timber, says Magnus Petersson, head of forest management and development at Södra. 11