Metla, more international than ever

 

ANNUAL REPORT 2004     
Metla   
Director General's review   
Research Director's review   
Databanks, computations        
and models   
Forest ecosystems and        
forest use   
Doctoral theses   
International Metla   
Conferences and meetings   
New projects   
Research projects 2004   
Publications   
Organisation   
Resources   
New appointments   

Metla's international activities are focused on the Nordic countries, the neighbouring areas and the rest of Europe. One of the most important international initiatives made by Metla concerned the reinforcement of collaboration between forest research institutes in the Baltic sea region. As an example, such collaboration could first involve inter-organizational reporting of statistics on forests and forest health status. Another important initiative concerned the collaboration between Metla and the French National Institute for Agricultular Research INRA on items such as gene research.

 

	Photo: Yuri Gerasimov Between Asia and Europe: the vice president of the Ural State Forest Engineering Academy, Sergei Zalegov shaking hands with Professor Timo Karjalainen from Metla.

Meetings of Metla's international Scientific Advisory Board were held in Vantaa and Rovaniemi in May. The specialist network of Metla's researchers assisted the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in decision making related to international forest policy projects, one example of which is the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Climate Change and the ministerial conference of European forest ministers. Metla's input was substantial also in the preparations for the European Technology Platform (ETP) concerning the Innovative and Sustainable Use of Forest Resources. Professor Risto Seppälä from Metla continued as the President of IUFRO, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. Researchers from Metla also worked in other positions at IUFRO.

 

Metla has a strong foothold in European research

During 2004 Metla was actively engaged in several research projects of the Fifth European Framework Programme. In the Sixth Framework Programme, one of the projects in which Metla is participating is the large scale EDEN project. EDEN is an integrated project funded from the EU Global Change Programme. The aim is to study the effects of environmental changes on human health. Almost 50 participants are involved in EDEN from more than 20 countries. New projects were accepted under the European LIFE environmental programme, and its importance to Metla as a source of external funding increased.

 

Metla also participated successfully in the EU Interreg programme that supports partnerships between European regions. Activities were intensified in the COST programme enhancing international networking: a Metla researcher was elected as the coordinator for two new COST projects.

 

Since 1985 Metla has participated in the pan-European Forest Monitoring programme (the new name is Forest Focus), the aim of which is to monitor the status of European forest ecosystems in a uniform and comprehensive manner. In 2004 Metla was granted funding from the EU Forest Focus Programme for the national monitoring projects and five pilot projects. In addition, the European Commission nominated Metla as the primary authorized body, giving Metla complete responsibility in Finland for the Forest Focus programme. In addition to this, considering that a consortium formed by the Forestry Commission (UK) and Metla won the EC tender competition on evaluating the Forest Focus monitoring programme, it is clear that Metla's input in the monitoring of European forest health status is exceptionally great.

 

Metla increased its expertise in procedures and collaboration in Russia

Bilateral collaboration in forestry between Finland and Russia has long traditions, and today, in compliance with the political targets of Russia, the trend is to extend cooperation involving production on the Russian side of the border. Metla has an important role especially in providing information for the needs of small-sized companies and different organizations. An extensive collaboration network with Russian specialists enables fast transfer of reliable information. Expertise in Russian Forestry was a project coordinated by Metla. The aim was to create a communication channel on Russian forestry for Finnish stakeholders of forestry. The Internet website at www.idanmetsatieto.info provides basic and current information about the Russian forest sector.

 

During 2004 Metla signed a collaboration contract with three institutes working under the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. In addition to the Forest Research Institute in St. Petersburg, the Russian Advanced Forestry Training Institute and the All-Russian Research Institute of Silviculture and Mechanization of Forestry, many other organizations from north-western Russia participated in the research projects.

 

As part of the collaboration between the Moscow State Forestry University (MSFU) and Metla, a seminar on Finnish forest research and advanced teaching in forestry was arranged for the MSFU teachers, staff and students in March. The aim of the seminar was to speed up and enhance the collaboration kick-off. The number of participants in the seminar was approximately 80, including also several students and representatives of the younger staff from the MSFU.

 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry financed a project called "Sustainable forest management in northwest Russia" and as a result of the project, guides in Russian were produced to enhance cut-to-length cost calculation and thinning planning in north-west Russia. The publications aroused a lot of interest both in Russian and in Finnish companies. The guides were also published in a Russian journal with a wide circulation. Research institutes, local authorities and planning forest-economy companies from north-western Russia were involved in the project.

 

The Academy of Finland coordinates a research programme called "Changes in Russia". The programme was started at the beginning of 2004 and it is scheduled to last four years. It aims to produce information about changes and development taking place in the forest sector of Russia. The results of the study will help to understand how the forest sector works in Russia and how it is being integrated; it will help to evaluate how the changes taking place in the Russian forest sector will affect the forest sector in Finland.

 

International exchange

is growing rapidly at Metla and a record-number of new contracts were signed through the EU Leonardo vocational training action programme for researcher trainees coming to Metla. The majority of the trainees were from Spain. Metla's researchers spent more than 50 months abroad as guest researchers or as employees in overseas organizations. Almost 500 presentations and posters were given and made public abroad. The number of foreign researchers working at Metla is also increasing..