International Cooperation in Forestry
Employees of the Institute of Forestry, Mining and Construction Sciences of PetrSU took part in an international seminar within the ENI Karelia project “Boosting Forest Cluster SME Business in two Karelias”.
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Joensuu) and ZAO Zapkarelles (Suoyarvi) hosted an international seminar dedicated to discussion of the first results and further plans of the project “Boosting Forest Cluster SME Business in two Karelias” implemented within the ENI Karelia CBC Programme. PetrSU, one of the partners of the project, was represented by the employees of the Institute of Forestry, Mining and Construction Sciences: Anton Sokolov, Oleg Galaktionov, and Yury Sukhanov.
The main topics of discussion were the opportunities to broaden the cooperation between Russia and Finland in forestry and timber harvesting, as well as prospective areas of the Center of Excellence, which is being established on the premises of the IFMCS. The partners presented the findings of the poll carried out among individual entrepreneurs and employees of companies working in the area of forestry in Russia and Finland. About a half of polled leaseholders and forest owners on both sides of the border would like to explore opportunities for attracting contractors from the neighboring country. Among Russian suppliers around 50% of respondents deem cooperation with customers from Finland as a promising area for development.
The majority of the respondents would like to receive additional education. Among the most coveted knowledge areas are optimization of log trucking industry; design, layout, construction, repair, and maintenance of forest roads; maintenance of equipment; quality control and logistics management. These topics will be included in the content of the additional educational programs developed within the project and implemented at the established Center for Excellence.
Besides that, the participants of the seminar had an opportunity to visit forestry facilities in Finland and Russia, which will be used in research within the project, as well as to study the cutting-edge technologies of using drones for forestry purposes.
