EIP-AGRI Seminar: Turning forest innovation into practice

Presentations & Videos

Day 1: Wednesday 24 November 2021

Session 1: Welcome and introduction

• Welcome words and overview of the new EU Forest Strategy and perspectives for the forest sector – Pierre Bascou, Director for Sustainability and Income Support – DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission: video
• Welcome – Pacôme Elouna Eyenga, Team leader Support Facility ‘Innovation & knowledge exchange | EIP-AGRI’: presentation – video
• Forest knowledge and social innovation – Gerhard Weiss, Coordinating expert EIP-AGRI Support Facility: presentation – video

Session 2: Sharing stories & discussing forest knowledge and social innovation: upscaling and mainstreaming for sustainable forest management

• Adaptation to climate change – Lídia Guitart Xarpell, LIFE MixForChange: video
• Mitigation of climate change – Yann Fortunato, Forêt de Brassac
• Circular bioeconomy – Uwe Kies, ROSEWOOD4.0: video
• Monitoring in forest management – Ilaria Mazzoli, OG Talking Chestnuts: video
• Forest biodiversity – Serena Corezzola, LIFE GoProFor: video
• Managing for ecosystem services – Francesco Benesperi, OG ForLEAVEs: video
• Multifunctional forest management – Pádraig Dolan, LEADER LAG Silver River Parklands

Session 3: Open Space Market on forest knowledge & innovation

Day 2: Thursday 25 November 2021

Session 4: Welcome, recap of day 1 and introduction to the programme

Session 5: Forest knowledge and social innovation: the main factors for innovation

• Introduction to the session – Gerhard Weiss, Coordinating expert EIP-AGRI Support Facility: presentation – video

• New ways of developing silviculture and technologies in forest management – Hara Koutalou, Forest & Free Grazing Animal monitoring with Small Flying Objects: video
• Organisational innovations – Guido Milazzo, Forest Sharing: video
• New forms of cooperation among forest owners or along the value chains – Benjamin Chapelet, Experiences from the Centre National de la Propriété Forestière (CNPF): video
• New business models and marketing approaches – Silvio Schüler, ValoFor: Small Forests – Big Players: video
• New ways of institutional support or founding new associations
  • Fabio Boscaleri, ERIAFF Forest Innovation Workshop: video
  • Aleksandar Damnjanovic, Standing Working Group (SWG) for Regional Rural Development in Southeast Europe: video
• Social engagement, participatory management and social enterprise
  • Nike Krajnc, Interreg Fem4Forest (Forests in women’s hands): video
  • Carla Barlagne & Arsène Vinglassalon, H2020 SIMRA and Operational Group VALAB: video

Session 6: Plenary discussion and wrap-up

• Closing of the seminar – Kerstin Rosenow, DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission: video

Information on the theme of the seminar

The seminar primarily focused on the social aspects that play a role in forest innovation and on how exactly innovation takes place. The main aim of the event was to support the strengthening of the ‘Forest Knowledge and Innovation Systems’ through knowledge exchange, contribute to fostering cooperation, education, training and advice to support sustainable forest management, and unlock the socio-economic and environmental potential of forests for EU rural areas.

The seminar specifically looked at the role of social innovation in supporting sustainable forest management. It considered four themes that are related to key priorities for forest management in the EU:

• Adaptation and mitigation of climate change
• Circular bioeconomy
• Monitoring in forest management
• Forest biodiversity, ecosystem services and multifunctionality, including agroforestry

The specific objectives of the seminar were:

• Bringing innovation closer to rural areas by learning how to stimulate cooperation amongst different actors in forest value chains, and enhancing positive spill-over effects, such as new products or value chains, services or business models, local jobs, or the valorisation of local biomass and resources.
• Stimulating the uptake of innovations and fostering cooperation in sustainable forest management practices, by connecting relevant projects and initiatives in the domain of the 4 proposed themes.
• Bridging knowledge and practice, with a particular focus on a supportive environment for social innovation and on small and/or unmanaged forest holdings. Exploring ways to scale-up forest management, foster cooperation or promote vocational training or advice.
• Contributing to the research agendas and implementation of the new EU forest strategy for 2030 by identifying needs from practice that are related to the supportive environment for innovation.
• Inspiring the setting-up of new initiatives that address key challenges of European forests, and particularly the creation of new EIP-AGRI Operational Groups (OGs), especially in those countries and regions with a lower ratio of OGs on the subject.

Participants included forest owners, foresters, farmers working on aspects linked to forestry, schools, vocational education and training organisations, advisory services, researchers, EU regions and Member States amongst others.