Best practices from Croatia, Greece and Slovenia presented in 3rd Validation Workshop

The best practices of the South East Europe (SEE) ROSEWOOD4.0 Hub in forestry and wood industry have been shortlisted for dissemination through video filming and study visits. The best practices were presented during the third validation workshop held on 17 March 2021, organised in Vinkovci (Croatia) by the Competence Centre, the Slovenian Forestry Institute and the Bioeconomy and Environment Cluster of Western Macedonia of Greece.

The hybrid event was attended by 29 experts (5 in person, 24 online) from public and private companies in the forestry and wood industry value chain; forestry and research institutes, public administration entities (local, regional and national) and research and education instituions. During the workshop, 8 best practices from the SEE Hub countries were presented:

• CIA2SFM – Cooperation for innovative approach in sustainable forest management training from Croatia – Croatian Forestry Institute, Slovenian Forestry Institute, Croatian Institute for Development and International Relations
• MyForester – Quality assessment of forestry contractors from Slovenia – Slovenian Forestry Institute
• SecureChain – Small and medium enterprises securing future-proof bioenergy chains from Greece – BTG Biomass Technology Group BV
• National Forest Inventory from Slovenia – Slovenian Forestry Institute
• Public data of forests from Croatia – Croatian Forests Ltd
• RecAPPture – Mobile application for collection of used wood from Slovenia – M SORA
• WAVE ŠŠ – Web application for managing data about forests and forest owners from Croatia – Ministry of Agriculture, Directorate for professional support for Agriculture and Fisheries Development
• DetecIT from Croatia – Gymnasium Velika Gorica.

The presentation of these best practices by the owners ensured on-the-spot feedback to the experts for any questions related to the clarification of technical prerequisites and implementation costs.

The validation workshop provided the opportunity to present the first version of the draft South East Europe (SEE) Hub roadmap, which was developed thanks to the collaboration of the experts during the development of the SWOT analysis, the collection of best practices in the SEE Hub, as well as the prioritisation of best practices from other Hubs.

The needs analysis of the SEE Hub regions and the development objectives for sustainable timber mobilisation were also presented. The third validation workshop resulted in the validation of the first draft of the SEE Hub roadmap.

With the aim of ROSEWOOD4.0 and the promotion of the shortlisted best practices, SEE Hub partners will create a video presenting 5 shortlisted best practices from Croatia, Slovenia and Greece. In the second part of 2021, we will focus on organising study visits in Slovenia and Croatia, which will depend on the COVID-19 pandemic situation.