Report by Abdullah E. Akay, Deputy Coordinator IUFRO Research Group 3.01.00 Harvesting and transportation engineering 

On 16-18 September, 85 participants from 19 countries gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the 5th International Conference of Forest Engineering and Technologies (FETEC 2024); Forest operation technologies and systems for small-scale forestry applications. The meeting, which involved IUFRO RG 3.01.00, was kindly hosted by the University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty and sponsored by Tajfun LLC, which also hosted the technical excursion in Sevnic

Meeting website;  https://www.ormantransportu.org/fetec2024 

Forestry plays a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity, providing habitats, regulating the water cycle, and serving as a carbon sink to mitigate the effects of climate change. Forest resources should be managed according to principles of sustainable and close-to-nature forest management in order to meet the needs of current and future generations. 

These two approaches aim to maximize the benefits of forests and to minimize environmental damage by using modern techniques and technological tools in forestry activities. Particularly, forest operations producing wood-based forest products should abide by the precision forestry approach. In recent decades, advanced small-scale forest operations, which are used in non-industrial and site-specific forestry, provide alternative methods well suited for use with precision forestry concept. 

Besides, small-scale forestry significantly contributes to the bioeconomy through forest-based businesses, rural communities, and provision of multiple ecosystem services in many regions of the world. Small-scale harvesting machines have low initial cost and relatively low operating cost, while at the same time, their potential environmental impacts can be considerably lower than with use of large-scale machinery.

Key issues that were discussed:

• Planning, organization and implementation of small-scale logging and transportation activities

• Forest mechanization-trends in small-scale operations

• Economic sustainability of small-scale forestry

• Forest bioenergy challenges in small-scale forestry sector

• Work safety and ergonomics in forest engineering

• Assessment of stand damage and soil impact from small-scale logging

• Implementation of smart forestry (GIS, ICT, IoT, etc.) in small-scale forest operations 

• Using remote sensing data (UAV, LiDAR, etc.) and machine learning in small-scale forestry

• Forest roads and road infrastructure in small-scale forestry   

At the conference, the most recent scientific and professional research related to small-scale forestry applications was discussed in 16 technical sessions by international researchers, practitioners, and relevant shareholders from all over the world. 

Proceedings of the conference will be published online by mid-November 2024. High-quality papers will be published in the European Journal Forest Engineering and ACTA Silvae et Ligni.

The "International Conference of KSFE-FETEC 2025" will be hosted by the Korean Society of Forest Engineering (KSFE) in Seoul, South Korea on 23-25 June 2025.