Reformation of the forest cluster

The forest cluster comprises everything from forest cultivation and harvesting to production and refining of products available from various raw wood materials and the manufacturing of equipment needed for these functions.

As a result of radical changes in the operating environment, use of wood energy is expected to increase and the focus of chemical forest industry production is shifting to Asia and South America. This will have an impact on industrial production and wood production chains. These changes mean that reformation of the forest cluster, development of new products, and new types of business are unavoidable.

In order to promote reformation of the forest cluster, our targets are

• product development in the area of forest cluster machinery and equipment,
• product development and service innovation production in the mechanical wood industry and wood construction,
• increased use of bioenergy and development of new bioenergy-related business, and
• increased education export related to the forest cluster.

In terms of content, our activities focus on the following topics:

• renewable forestry,
• the harvesting technology and logistics required for new types of activities,
• product development in the wood industry and wood construction (construction industry and healthy living),
• refining of raw materials into energy,
• mechanical and chemical processes for producing new products and the related technological solutions and environmental issues.

Our co-operation network initially consists of work with the Tampere University of Applied Sciences and, in the bioenergy field, VTT and the University of Jyväskylä. The forest reserve in Central Finland and the paper and paper machinery industry concentrated in the region offer strong partnership for developing the forest cluster.