Project “Network of knowledge for efficient private forests - Net4Forest (2018 -2021)” is aiming to develop and promote the vocational education and training for private forest owners. The main aim is to support forest owners in increasing income from their forest through optimizing the costs and increasing the efficiency of wood and forest services marketing. For most countries in Europe, the majority of forest land is owned by private forest owners, and a high proportion of harvested timber comes from private estates. Outcomes of forest owner’s management decisions greatly depend on their knowledge and skills. Forest management decisions are not straightforward, as they try to achieve the right balance between economic, environmental and social goals. Improving of forest products and services marketing in private forests has proved to be a challenge, as holdings are small and forest owners in most cases are not forestry professionals. Without proper knowledge forest owners are losing profit. Information about forest products marketing and evaluation of forest services are available in participating countries and widely in EU, however there is a lack of information, guidelines and training materials suitable for forest owners practical use. Therefore, the Net4Forest main long-term objective is to educate forest owners to be able to increase the income from their forest through lowering costs without neglecting environmental constraints on one side and efficient marketing of wood and forest services on the other side. 5 European countries (Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Spain) will participate in this project. They all have different forest practices, available knowledge and different traditions in management of private forests. With the exchange of knowledge, experiences and good practices examples among PP we will get an excellent opportunity for development of innovative training and information materials. The main target groups involved in this project are: trainers (they will serve as a tool to reach the large groups of private forest owners), forest owners (they will be involved directly through local seminars where training material will be used and presented), different stakeholders from forestry sector (especially education and training organizations, they will be involved through information and dissemination materials). As a result of this project, an innovative, publicly available educational materials will be created, enabling the target group to acquire the necessary knowledge for efficient management of forest resources. First output will be a Handbook - The pathway for efficient operations in private forests. Handbook is aiming primarily to trainers of forest owners around EU and beyond. Second output will be Hands-on guidelines for forest owners - to change daily routine in forest operations management (in national languages). Next an interactive toolkit will be developed build on guidelines. It will be developed as interactive training/education material for forest owners to learn how to manage their forest more efficient. Along whole project a Collection of good practice examples will be prepared, showing innovative and already implemented solutions for forest management. All project outputs will be publicly available on PP websites. With PP staff training events (training of trainers) network of knowledge will be established. In total 4 events with 100 participants are planned. At trainings, trainers will learn from each other, exchange experiences and available knowledge. Local seminars in each country (in total at least 5 seminars) will be organized to test and promote the project results and outcomes among project target groups. One day seminars for approx. 40 local participants are planned in each country. At the end of the project Final international conference will be organized, with the aim to present project results and outcomes. Expected are approx. 30 local participants plus all project partners. Throughout the entire duration of the project, we will use promotional and information material for dissemination of useful knowledge and information to our target groups. The project will bring together experts from different countries, which will enable transfer and improvement of knowledge and raise awareness on issues related to private forest management. Outputs (training materials and tools) developed will bring existing knowledge closer to forest owner’s needs and will help them to change their day-to-day management of forest. With new knowledge gained they will have better opportunities to provide higher income from their forest. Organized events will give the opportunity to raise awareness among all involved target groups and beyond. Project will strive to enhance forest from the perspective of vitality and sustainability as well as economical outputs that can have positive impact also on GDP from forestry sector.
The project "Network of knowledge for efficient private forests - Net4Forest (2018 -2021)" aimed to develop and promote the vocational education and training for private forest owners. Behind the delivery of the many services that forests provide are people - forest owners with a wide range of skills. The increasing multifunctional role of forests in the transition to a sustainable future requires more skills. Information on the marketing of forest products and valuation of forest services is widely available in the participating countries and in the EU, but there is a lack of information, guidelines and training materials suitable for practical application by forest owners. Therefore, the main long-term objective of Net4Forest was to develop training materials and practical tools for forest owners to increase income from their forests. Experts from 5 European countries (Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Spain) participated in the Net4Forest project. They all have different knowledge and traditions in managing private forests. The exchange of knowledge, experience and examples of good practice between the project partners gave us the opportunity to develop innovative training and information materials. The main target groups involved in this project were: trainers (they served as a tool to reach the large groups of private forest owners), forest owners (they were directly involved through local seminars), different stakeholders from the forest sector (especially educational and training organizations) and young people just entering the forest sector (students, young practitioners were involved through the presentation of tools through different social media platforms). Developed intellectual outputs represent a collection of existing knowledge and newly developed tools. They were presented and discussed in different events. Organized events provided an opportunity to raise awareness among all the target groups involved and beyond. A knowledge network was established by PP through events for the training of staff (Training of trainers - LTT). A total of 4 pieces of training were organized with 112 participants. During the trainings, trainers had the opportunity to learn from each other, share experiences and existing knowledge. Local seminars in each country (we organized 11 seminars in total) were organized to test and promote the project results and outcomes among the project target groups. We directly involved 360 participants in these seminars. At the end of the project, an international final conference was organized where we presented the project results and outcomes with 83 participants. Throughout the project, we used promotional and informational materials to share useful knowledge and information with our target groups. We published 21 articles and more than 60 posts and news on different internet platforms and social media, together reaching more than 60,000 people.