Digitalisation and social sustainability in forests

A packed programme conference on 21 November 2023 marked the official start of Mistra Digital Forest's second phase. The venue was central Stockholm, and Viveka Beckeman, CEO of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, began with some reflections about the programme: 

"The forest industry's products will be completely fossil-free and recyclable, we will have forests with rich biodiversity, as well as increasing our climate benefits. These are incredibly extensive goals for which Mistra Digital Forest offers many solutions, what we do in this programme is crucial for the whole industry. " 

The common thread of the day was that Mistra Digital Forest is strengthening its focus on social sustainability in this second phase. Norway and Finland's sister programmes, SmartForest and UNITE, were both in attendance, and it became clear that Mistra Digital Forest is the first to introduce this perspective on the digitalisation of forestry. Camilla Sandström from Umeå University is the process manager for social sustainability and she explained what the concept means in the programme: 

"The issue of integrity is becoming increasingly important as large, ever increasing amounts of data are collected. We will also study aspects such as democracy, transparency and discrimination, how digital solutions can meet the needs of different groups and help us to balance different interests". 

Daniel Nylén from Umeå University gave an example of something that can support the work on sustainable development. In an exploratory project, he aims to understand the possibilities of a digital twin of the forest, and how it can make information available in new ways, creating the conditions for constructive dialogue and the participation of different stakeholders in forest planning. 

Daniel Nylén, Umeå universitet.  

But what social sustainability assessment indicators exist? Anders Lindhagen, SLU, spoke about the work on the development of proposed indicators for forests with high recreational values. The environment, from traffic noise to lakes, plays a role in the recreational value, as does accessibility. "The forest paths are disappearing", he said, noting that "the paths are probably more important than the appearance of the forest. If access is made possible, even younger, more impenetrable forests can be appreciated, despite the fact that they do not match the older forests that most people say they want to spend time in. " 

Anders emphasised that there is no such thing as an average forest visitor; rather, needs vary between people but also for individuals over time. He called for data on ground vegetation, shrubs and small trees in order to provide better indicators of the recreational value of the forest, something that partly ties in with Henrik Persson's project at Skogforsk. Using laser scanning, he wants to identify objects at ground level, particularly cultural remains such as stone walls, graves and smelting sites (remains of iron production). 

"Please get in touch if you have dense laser scanning data, experience with methods or suggestions about which archaeological remains should be prioritised," he urged. 

Henrik Persson, Skogforsk. 

The amount of data becoming publicly available will increase and demands for financial, social and environmental development make for increasingly complex decision-making. Based on this observation, Anna Bengtsson from Uppsala University and Maria Nordström from Skogforsk talked about a newly launched project investigating how individual forest owners can benefit from digital tools: 

"We are delving into things like digital competence and how decision support should be designed, how digitalisation affects the balance of power between forest owners and forest companies, and into the effects of new legislation." 

Before the morning progressed into lunch, the programme conference was wrapped up with some reflections from Mistra Digital Forest's programme board, starting with Maria Wetterstrand: 

"What I have heard during today's presentations is in line with the EU's green transition and the political ambitions that are moving towards viewing forests from a broader perspective, where a number of different values are integrated into the planning processes. Digital tools can support the realisation of these political ambitions". 

Maria Wetterstrand, Mistra Digital Forest programstyrelse. 

Ingrid Petersson concluded by saying: 

"The research we have seen examples of today builds bridges that allow us to communicate with each other, and to strengthen the social cohesion that is lacking in the forest today. Forestry has a strong tradition of social values, where we are tending the forests for future generations." 

Ingrid Petersson, Mistra Digital Forest programstyrelse.