Metla building the future of the forest sector
Research Directors’ Review
Despite efficient utilisation of wood raw material, the forest resources at the disposal of the Finnish economy have constantly increased over the past decades, and the annual growth of forests will reach the limit of 100 million cubic metres perhaps already in 2009. Our expertise in silviculture is advanced and also efficient on the international scale. A high level of technology has been achieved in wood harvesting and processing. This would not have been possible without the knowledge and expertise provided by research.
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| Director of Research Leena Paavilainen. Photo: Metla/Erkki Oksanen |
In 2008, Metla’s researchers also produced information about wood, forests, silviculture, and the forest sector, as well as the factors having an impact on these, in support of economic and industrial policy decision-making. Metla’s research supported especially the preparation of national and international forest, energy and climate policies.
We reported on our research results in more than 600 research articles and in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, as well as in a number of books, written by our researchers. We published two customer magazines and sent out about 150 press releases to the media. We also launched seven electronic newsletters aimed at various interest groups. We or our research projects were discussed in more than 2,500 news items in various media aimed at the general public. Met Info and the Forest Statistics Info rmation Service on our public website were actively used by players in the sector.
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| Director of Research Pasi Puttonen. Photo: Metla/Erkki Oksanen |
To provide research information directly to those who need it, we organised dozens of seminars and hundreds of events for interest groups where the steering groups of our research projects and programmes, the administrative committees of our units or other interest groups shared their ideas with us and provided feedback on our operations. Our researchers acted as experts in a number of working groups and committees in both Finland and abroad.
Metla researchers gave a considerable input in the preparation of the National Forest Programme 2015 and the Forest Biodiversity Programme 2008–2016, completed in early 2008 and important in terms of the development of Finland’s silviculture.
We also managed our public authority tasks, such as the National Forest Inventory (NFI), with its 10th round in 2008. We were responsible for monitoring the health of the forests and forest tree breeding operations, as well as maintaining the genetic diversity of Finnish forests in accordance with the national plant genetic resources programme. Since 2006, we have also been responsible for the reporting of greenhouse gases related to land use and its changes in accordance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the development of reporting, including reporting in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol.
Strategic centres for science, technology and innovation
The Science and Technology Council made a decision in 2006 that the national Centre of Expertise Programme (OSKE) will be reinforced by establishing Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOK) in key areas of expertise in terms of the future of industry and society.
Metla has been actively involved in the Centre of Expertise Programme, and in 2007 it joined Forestcluster Ltd, the first forest sector’s strategic centre for science, technology and innovation. The objective is to double the research and development input of the cluster and the value of its products and services by 2030 so that half of the value will come from new products and services.
Forestcluster’s first research programme, ‘Intelligent, resource-efficient production technologies’ (EffTech), was launched in 2008, and Metla is coordinating the task package focusing on the availability of raw materials and profitability of forestry. Metla is involved in the three research consortiums in the package, with the themes of smart and quality-conscious wood management, new environmentally-friendly value chains in forestry, and the functional genomics of wood formation.
Metla was also actively involved in the preparation of the second research programme of the consortium, Future Biorefinery (FuBio). It aims to develop both new methods of separating various parts of the wood (cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin, and extractives) in a form that is as close to the original as possible, and to refine them to various chemicals and materials.
Cleen Ltd, the energy and environment strategic centre for science, technology and innovation, was launched in 2008. Metla is also a partner and is actively involved in the preparation of its research agenda.
Research programmes
Our research and development programmes are an essential way of producing new basic knowledge and applied information and to develop ways of operation and solutions, often on an extensive thematic area. In the programmes, experts from Metla’s various fields are brought together, and work is carried out in close co-operation, networking with the users of the information. In 2008, Metla had seven ongoing research and development programmes. They are described in detail in the research programmes section of the annual report.
During 2008, a programme called ‘Potentials for the utilisation of roundwood and wood raw materials in relation to the wood products markets’ (PKM) was concluded, and its research results have been published in several seminars aimed at forest sector players and in various publications and business negotiations. The programmes ‘Welfare effects of forests’ (HYV), to be launched in 2009, and ‘Renewing wood product value chains and timber procurement solutions’ (PUU) were prepared.
Research forests
Year 2008 was historical in the sense that at the beginning of the year Metla’s research forests were transferred to the management of Metsähallitus. When the Forestry Experimental Institute started operation in 1918, the establishment of research forests began immediately from the beginning of the 1920s for the needs of long-term experiments. This need has not disappeared, and Metla required full safeguarding of experimental operations in connection with the transfer of forests. This was guaranteed so that the use of research forests remained under the control of Metla. Moreover, the rest of the forest areas of Metsähallitus can also be used by agreement. Experiences from the first year of the new arrangement have been positive.
International activities
Metla took active part in international operations on all continents. However, Europe is clearly our focus area. In 2008, we had thirty ongoing research projects funded by the European Union. The most important of the programmes promoting international networking was COST, with about twenty Metla researchers and professors working under the programme. During the year, for example, the Cost E43 project, directed by Metla, published its final report. The project aimed to harmonise the national forest inventories in Europe.
A co-operation project, which Metla will use for taking its expertise in the estimation of greenhouse gases to Estonia, was approved for EU funding in 2008. Metla also has about ten research and development projects with Russia.
Relations with the strong economies in East and South-East Asia (Japan, China, South Korea) were strengthened. Metla was the first European forest research institute to sign a co-operation agreement with the Japanese Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) in 2008.
Professor Risto Seppälä of Metla acted as Chairman of the Global Forest Experts Panel (GFEP), established by the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), within the framework of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) of IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In the spring, two significant bioenergy operators in Europe, Metla and VTT, launched a joint venture, Bioenergy Technology Alliance, in order to reach the targets of increasing energy from forests in Europe at a quicker pace by making research activities more effective. The joint venture will widen the expertise of both parties and make Finland an even stronger player on the international scale.
Sector research reform
The sector research reform progressed in 2008 in various stages and stopping and starting, but at the end of October the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of the Environment published an agreement for establishing the environmental and natural resources consortium. Since then, the consortium was given the official name of Luonnonvara- ja ympäristötutkimuksen yhteenliittymä (natural resources and environmental research consortium).
In addition to Metla, consortium members include MTT Agrifood Research Finland, the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, the Finnish Geodetic Institute, and the Finnish Environment Institute.
With its actual launch in 2010, the consortium will act as a joint expertise and service unit for the institutes and an integrated centre for the management of natural resources research and information.
Personnel and organisation
During 2008, the charting of Metla’s personnel’s expertise progressed and the expertise profile of the research institute was developed further to support the industries and society.
The age structure of the personnel is challenging in respect of development as in the next few years a large number of Metla employees will reach the retirement age. Therefore, this is the time to make provisions for this change. On the one hand, continuity of research expertise should be guaranteed in key areas by employing new people to replace those who will be retiring in the near future while, on the other hand, it should be possible to create completely new kind of expertise. Another target is to raise the proportion of researchers among our personnel.
This will be challenging due to the tight government budget and especially the productivity programmes in public administration: these will make recruitment more difficult even to replace retiring staff, let alone develop new areas of expertise.
At the end of the year, work was launched on the building of a new process organisation from the viewpoint of reinforcing the current units and regional activities. The division of research responsibility in the research units will be clarified and particular attention will be paid to the socialisation of research results produced by Metla, as well as to the transfer of information and technology. The new organisation will be introduced at the beginning of 2010.
Forests and wood will continue to be part of the solid bedrock of the Finnish economy. Forests do not have a diminishing, but rather a growing significance in the long term because an economy based on renewable natural resources is a virtue as well as a necessity.
The Directors of Research
Leena Paavilainen ja Pasi Puttonen
