Project Affiliates
Consortium
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT), established 1942, is a state owned and controlled non-profit research institute, with over 2000 staff members. VTT is ranked among the leading European Research and Technology Organizations. VTT Remote Sensing team produces science based EO data interpretation methods and systems for domestic and international users. A service ecosystem is being built on the Forestry TEP cloud platform, which is also used as the primary processing environment in the FCM project. As the coordinator of the project, VTT has the overall responsibility of the FCM project, with major input in the methodological development, online platform setup, system demonstrations and outreach activities.
The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international organisation, established by the European States. In addition to the 29 European States that have ratified the Convention on the EFI, it has around 130 Associate and Affiliate Member organisations in 40 countries. EFI conducts research and provides policy support on issues related to forests. It facilitates and stimulates forest-related networking and promotes the dissemination of unbiased and policy-relevant information on forests and forestry. It also advocates for forest research and for the use of scientifically sound information as a basis for forest policies. In the FCM project, EFI leads the outreach and networking activities.
GAMMA Remote Sensing Research and Consulting AG (GAMMA RS) is a Swiss corporation, founded in 1995. Research and development, processing and adding value to remote sensing data, license sales for its commercial processing software, and Earth Observation data distribution are GAMMA’s primary business elements. GAMMA is well integrated in the remote sensing research community and offers commercial services and software licenses. In the FCM project GAMMA RS develops algorithms for retrieval of forest biomass for the generation of continental maps of forest biomass from SAR data.
German Helmholtz Research Centre for Geosciences
German Helmholtz Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), is a national research centre for the solid Earth Sciences, with a mission to deepen the knowledge of the dynamics of the solid Earth, and to develop solutions for grand challenges facing society. GFZ Remote Sensing and Geoinformation section has over 60 staff members focusing on three main topics of 1) Future Remote Sensing Missions and Data Processing Algorithms, 2) Monitoring of geophysical variables and 3) Big Data Analytics. In the FCM project, GFZ leads the output validation activities of the European wide products and participates in the user interaction, outreach and networking activities.
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)
The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) is one of Norway's largest research institutes with approximately 750 employees. The Department of National Forest Inventory is conducting a consistent nationwide survey of the Norwegian land surface using permanent sample plots. NIBIO is responsible for reporting to international bodies including FAO, Forest Europe and UN Convention on Climate Change for the LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry) sector on greenhouse gas emissions and removals. In the FCM project NIBIO leads the field reference data processing in Norway and participates in the accuracy assessment and statistical development. NIBIO has a dual role in the project as consortium and user partner directly involved in the development of the approaches to be implemented in the Norwegian use case.
South Pole is the world’s leading carbon project expert and climate consultancy. Since 2006, South Pole has been a trusted partner and advisor to governments, public sector organisations, and leading businesses on their decarbonisation journeys. For more information about South Pole, visit www.southpole.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook. In the FCM project, South Pole leads the field campaign, local interaction with the indigenous communities and reporting in the Colombia use case, which is connected to a Verra-certified REDD+ Project Pueblos Indigenas Resguardando la Selva (VCS2297) project. South Pole has a role both as a consortium and user partner in the project.
Satellio Oy (Terramonitor), established in Helsinki, Finland in 2015, produces and sells satellite images to varying customer needs, and offers remote sensing based automatic image analytics as a service. The company conducts research and development and innovates new services for several industries from Finland to global markets. Their technology is continuously evolving, and they are constantly searching for new possibilities to expand. In the FCM project, Terramonitor creates cloud free optical Sentinel-2 mosaics and participates in the development of the product visualization features.
Yucatrote LDA is a start-up company based in Lagos, Portugal, established in 2021. Yucatrote provides Information Technology (IT) solutions for data analysis and modelling in the environmental sector with special focus on Forest ecosystems. The core expertise of Yucatrote is in assessing ecosystem carbon balance and modelling the impact of climate change on ecosystem functionality. In the FCM project, Yucatrote conducts process-based ecosystem modelling and data assimilation.
Former consortium partners from the main phase of the project
AFRY has 50 years of outstanding experience in consulting in forestry and industry development (incl. bioenergy) worldwide. AFRY Management Consulting is the leading consultant and advisor to the world’s energy, forest and bio-based industries, providing strategic and operational advice across the value chain, underpinned by deep expertise and market insights. AFRY Smart Forestry provides expert services on forestry simulation and optimization, helping forestry stakeholders to reach the objectives set for their forest assets – in a sustainable way. In the main phase of the FCM project AFRY Management Consulting team led the cost and benefit assessment and participates in user interaction. The AFRY Smart Forestry team implemented and controlled the processing chains for the demonstration cases in the main phase of the project.
Joanneum Research (JR), headquartered in Graz, is an internationally active research institution owned by the Austrian federal states of Styria, Carinthia and Burgenland. The institution focuses on three fields including “Information and Production Technologies”, “Human Technologies and Medicine”, and “Society and Sustainability”. Innovative ideas and considerable research experience enables JR to support private and public companies alike with the development of technology, methods and products. In the main phase of the FCM project, JR set up a near-real-time (NRT) forest disturbance monitoring system and conducted an Austrian-wide demonstration.
Natural Resources Institute Finland
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is a research and expert organisation, which promotes bioeconomy and sustainable use of natural resources. Luke has been monitoring the status of Finnish forests by means of National Forest Inventories (NFI) since the 1920s. The NFI data and scenarios of the future development of forests are used by national and regional level decision makers, the forest industry, and researchers. The NFI data are used also for international reporting processes. In the main phase of the FCM project, Luke participated in the Finnish national demonstration activities and evaluation of change detection accuracies.
University of Helsinki (UH) is a European research university with over 36,000 students and 8,000 staff. UH ranks among the top 80 universities worldwide. The Forest Modelling Group at Department of Forest Sciences focuses on forest structure, growth and ecosystem material balances, utilising dynamic modelling, advanced data-model assimilation techniques and spatial and temporal scaling. The group has conducted pioneering work on models that are sufficiently simple to be driven by inputs feasibly available over large areas. In the main phase of the FCM project, UH further developed forest biomass and carbon modelling.
User partners
The user organizations are cooperating with the project consortium in the development of optimal monitoring approaches for different types of user groups. Private companies, regional and national agencies as well as international organizations are represented. The demonstrations are designed to meet the needs of the users and in many cases conducted using reference data provided by the users. The cooperation of the users partners is extremely valuable for the project aiming to develop a monitoring platform to meet the needs of the users. The current and former users participating in the project are listed below, starting from the users of the project continuation, followed by user who partcipated in the main phase of the project:
The Forest Ownership Centre (CPF) in Catalonia, Spain, is a public agency that promotes the sustainable management of private forests in Catalonia (80% of total forestland), with a 30 year experience in forest management and knowledge transfer in the forestry sector, and a long-term relation of trust and collaboration with the diverse forest stakeholders of Catalonia. The CPF has the duty to report to the regional government on the level and effects of forest management in the Catalan private forests, including annual timber extraction.
Directorate for Sustainable Resources
The Directorate for Sustainable Resources is one of the six scientific directorates of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. Its mission is to create, manage and make sense of scientific knowledge for EU policies related to the sustainable use of resources, encompassing environmental, economic and social dimensions. The research group at JRC focuses on evidence-based assessment of the forest resources in EU and Worldwide. Being the technical responsible of the EU GHG inventory for the LULUCF sector, the team has a unique expertise in the science-policy interface, including well-established relationships with the GHG inventory compilers of EU Member States.
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)
The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) is one of Norway's largest research institutes with approximately 750 employees. The Department of National Forest Inventory is conducting a consistent nationwide survey of the Norwegian land surface using permanent sample plots. NIBIO is responsible for reporting to international bodies including FAO, Forest Europe and UN Convention on Climate Change for the LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry) sector on greenhouse gas emissions and removals. In the FCM project NIBIO leads the field reference data processing in Norway and participates in the accuracy assessment and statistical development. NIBIO has a dual role in the project as consortium and user partner directly involved in the development of the approaches to be implemented in the Norwegian use case.
South Pole is the world’s leading carbon project expert and climate consultancy. Since 2006, South Pole has been a trusted partner and advisor to governments, public sector organisations, and leading businesses on their decarbonisation journeys. For more information about South Pole, visit www.southpole.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook. In the FCM project, South Pole leads the field campaign, local interaction with the indigenous communities and reporting in the Colombia use case, which is connected to a Verra-certified REDD+ Project Pueblos Indigenas Resguardando la Selva (VCS2297) project. South Pole has a role both as a consortium and user partner in the project.
Former user partners from the main phase of the project
Dasos Capital Oy, Finland, is an investment advisor to private equity funds investing in sustainable forests and natural capital (land, biodiversity, climate, water, etc.). The investors include European pension funds and endowments, family offices and other investors. Social and environmental sustainability underlie all the company’s natural capital investments. The company sees forest investment as an environmentally and socially responsible activity in itself contributing to sustainable development while generating profits for investors.
Ence Energía y Celulosa, Spain, is an energy company aiming to be the leader in the total and sustainable use of trees and other natural resources for the production of special pulp and renewable energy. Ence is the largest producer of eucalyptus pulp in Europe and the largest private forest manager in Spain, with 22% of its forests allocated to the protection and conservation of ecosystems. The company promotes the highest respect for the environment by applying the most advanced and responsible management systems.
Tornator, Finland, is a leading company specialized in sustainable forest management in Europe. Tornator owns approximately 650 000 individual parcels of forest land, covering nearly 700 000 ha in Finland, Estonia and Romania. Tornator’s core business is wood production and the sale of cutting rights. The overall management strategy is based on long-term sustainable harvest levels. This process also aims at maximising this sustainable harvest level by applying well timed and targeted management operations.
Natural Resources Institute Finland
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is a governmental research institute, subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, with expertise in renewable natural resources and sustainable food production. The tasks of Luke are defined in the law and statute to promote competitive business activities based on the sustainable use of renewable natural resources, well-being, and the vitality of rural areas. Luke is responsible for greenhouse gas inventory of agriculture and land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sectors in Finland. Luke’s project produces GHG emissions and removals from agriculture and LULUCF for the Finnish Greenhouse Gas Inventory complying with the UNFCCC guidelines, the Paris Agreement and the EU Governance Regulation on the Energy Union and Climate Action.
National Forest and Wildlife Service
The National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR, by its acronym in Spanish) operates under the Peruvian Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation. SERFOR is the leading executive organization of the Peruvian National Forest and Wildlife Management System (SINAFOR), a multi-level and multi-actor platform that articulates the national forest and wildlife policy in the country. The LULUCF sector is the main contributing source of GHG in Peru and SERFOR looks forward to exploring how biomass monitoring products could support the national GHG forest-related accounting system.
Repsol, Spain, is an energy and petrochemical company on the commitment of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. The Repsol Foundation is one of the strategic pillars of the Company in its commitment to energy transition to build a more sustainable world. The Foundation has launched a project to drive the voluntary CO2 emissions offsetting market through large-scale reforestation projects in Spain. The reforestation work is led by Sylvestris, a company with more than 30 years of experience in the forestry sector that is specialized in CO2 absorption projects.
