20.05.2019. Kick-Off meeting. Advanced forest nursery (KA4011)

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(KA4011) “Advanced Forest Nursery” Kick-off meeting In Russia 

Vidlitsa, Republic of Karelia, Russia- 20.05.2019

A group of researchers from the School of Forest Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland (lead partner) and project partners took the road to Vidlitsa, Russia on 20th of May to attend the kick off meeting of CBC Karelia funded project “Advanced Forest Nursery KA4011”. Project partners from Finland include owners of forest nursery Pohjan Taimi Ltd and representative of Taimitarha Timo Korhonen Ltd. Project partners from Russian Federation include Forest Bureau Partner Ltd and the Forest research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Petrozavodsk. The project was successfully selected for funding from Karelia CBC joint funding program and under Priority 1 with the aim at “Growing cross-border business cooperation”.  Under this ambitious call, the objective is to “create new working possibilities for those already living in the region and also for people willing to move to the region, special focus being on young people” [CBC Karelia, 2019].

The project aims at addressing forest seedlings shortage in the Republic of Karelia by establishing a demo-site forest nursery in Vidlitsa commune and by adopting Finnish knowledge and experiences in developing modern forest nurseries. The demo-site is expected to produce initially 200 thousand seedlings of spruce and pine species with future target of 2 million production capacity annually. The demo-site is expected to offer training to new generations of Russian foresters and generate revenues to maintain its production operations.  During the 2-days kick off meeting, the partners presented their activities and implementation plans for project duration period (2019-2021) with total budget of 889 390 €. The partners visited the selected location for the demo-site and explored the existing activities and infrastructures installation.

Prof. Ari Pappinen (project leader at the UEF) highlighted the need for cross-border collaboration between North Karelia and the Republic of Karelia as a catalyst for innovation and economic development at the forestry sector whilst Russian partners expressed gratitude for collaboration with Finland to stream forest nursery experiences.  Professor Ari Pappinen calls for new possibilities through business-based collaboration and/or joint ventures between Russian and Finnish companies within the growing demand for innovations and bio-products from forests and modern forestry industries. Project coordinator Dr. Aki Villa, from the School of Forest Sciences, orchestrates project activities and provide a channel for scientific inputs and administrative management of the project activities.