Two dozen organizations have come together to create solutions capable of contributing to a more resilient, productive and competitive forestry sector. Find out what they did as part of the rePLANT project, including new forest monitoring technologies, intelligent equipment and trials with new species.
The rePLANT project was the first coLAB ForestWISE® – Collaborative Laboratory for Integrated Forest and Fire Management – collaborative and mobilizing forest project. It emerged as a response towards the need to develop and test innovative and integrated solutions that motivate more forest producers to manage their forest areas in an informed and sustainable way, capable of reducing risks – particularly fire risks – and strengthening forests as a source of value for owners, communities and the country.
Pursuing CoLAB ForestWISE’s mission – to promote integrated forest and fire management, acting as an interface between companies, academia and society – the project brought together 20 entities, namely leading companies operating in the forestry sector and Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) entities, and worked at different stages of the forest value chain to generate knowledge and solutions that benefit its different agents.
The rePLANT project took place over three years (2020-2023) and had an investment of 5.6 million euros (co-financed by the COMPETE and Portugal 2020 programs). Some of the areas addressed continue to be further developed after the formal end of the project.
The approach taken was wide-ranging and included assessing the best adapted species to the challenges faced by the forest – particularly those arising from climate change (with a focus on pine species) – developing intelligent forestry machines, and analyzing the most effective technological applications for knowing and monitoring forest areas, managing biomass and reducing the risk of fire.
The idea is for all stakeholders to have access to the knowledge generated and the strategies and products developed, promoting cross-sector sharing that benefits the entire forest value chain, increasing sustainable forest management, the sector’s competitiveness and, at the same time, reducing the impact of forest fires.