Use of new “smart” forestry equipment, robotics in forest clearing operations, new smartphone applications, forest monitoring through optical cameras, new digital sensors, and processes for data communication in forestry machines. These were the main highlights of a work developed over three years by 20 entities – including companies, universities, and research centres – presented at the “Floresta Digital: Entre no próximo nível (Digital Forest: Enter the Next Level)” event.
In this initiative, held in Lisbon, rePLANT presented the work developed over three years, with emphasis on four trials of different species and provenances of pine, several installed trials, nine technical manuals for improving forest management, two decision support systems for fire management, three new devices, eight tested technologies, and ten test pilots, with field demonstrations on topics such as genetic improvement, fire protection, and ignition detection and fire monitoring, new ways of forest planting, digitisation of the value chain, and making production estimates accessible.
This collaborative project led by CoLAB ForestWISE and by The Navigator Company was structured into three main areas of action – the first, dedicated to Forest and Fire Management (led by Sonae Arauco and by Instituto Superior de Agronomia of the University of Lisbon); the second, dedicated to Risk Management (coordinated by REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais and by the University of Coimbra); and a third pillar, concerning Circular Economy and Value Chains (under the management of The Navigator Company and CoLAB ForestWISE).
For Carlos Fonseca, Scientific and Technological Director of CoLAB ForestWISE, “rePLANT is the first major project of CoLAB ForestWISE, and it is also the first collaborative project for our forest. We are very proud to see that the strong involvement and commitment of the various corporate and academic partners in this mobilising project has enabled the development of products and results that are in line with the main needs of the forest and fire areas in Portugal”.
