Metsä Group is at the forefront of development: our strategy is built around regenerative forestry, the development of customer experience, and the improvement of resource efficiency and partnerships. Digitalisation plays a key role in all this.
For forest owners, the forest plan is the most important tool for managing their forest assets. For a long time, the information in forest plans was based on field measurements, but relascopes have now been largely replaced by data collection based on laser scanning and aerial imaging technologies. Plans have moved from bookcases to home computers and then to mobile phones.
Digitalisation has enriched forest information with new forest descriptors. For a few years now, the artificial intelligence application that we developed has been interpreting satellite images to identify forest stands susceptible to the spruce bark beetle and other damage. Predictive information helps our owner-members contain damage and maintain good growth in forests.
The incidents involving the river pearl mussel earlier this autumn demonstrated the importance of geospatial data and its utilisation in responsible forestry. The locations of nature sites protected under laws and certification schemes, as well as other valuable nature sites, must be stored in geospatial data so that they are available to felling site planners and harvester operators. In the future, felling can hopefully be prevented on valuable nature sites with the help of geospatial data about the sites and accurate real-time data about the location of machines as well as applications interpreting the data. This is known as geofencing.
I believe that in the future, we will be able to build a virtual twin of our forests, in which the elements of traditional topographic maps as well as each individual tree will be described more or less correctly in the appropriate place. We can wander around our forest virtually, knowing that each forest stand has a real-life equivalent on our forest estate. We can simulate a regeneration felling or selection cutting in the forest and examine the structure of stands at the selected time. For example, in 30 years' time, the retention trees and buffer zones created under the Metsä Group Plus management model will still stand out in the rapidly growing young forests, and some of the high biodiversity stumps may also be found.
Digitalisation provides opportunities to increase the productivity and quality of harvesting. A few years from now, we will be able to use artificial intelligence to optimise the harvester’s route on the felling site so that it avoids nature sites and the most sensitive areas. This will also minimise costs. With harvesters and forwarders also measuring and analysing their own work in real time with the help of data from laser scanners, sensors and measuring devices, felling will produce not only excellent results in the forest but also an accurate description of the state of the forest. The information can be used to update forest plans and to plan future measures – for example, sections of forest stands damaged by root rot can be taken into account when selecting tree species.
As you might expect, I asked an AI application to write this blog. According to AI, digitalisation will lead to forest owners selling their trees directly to consumers or industry through online platforms. It got me thinking, but then I decided, as I still work in wood supply, that I would write this blog on my own.