Information Technology and the Forest Sector ppt

Edited by Lauri Hetemäki and Sten Nilsson Report by the IUFRO Task Force on “Information Technology and the Forest Sector” Task Force Partners: - International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) - Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) IUFRO Headquarters Hauptstrasse 7 1140 Vienna, Austria Tel: + 43-1-877-0151-0 Fax: +43-1-877-0151-50 Email: office@iufro.org Web site: www.iufro.org Information Technology and the Forest Sector IUFRO World Series Vol. 18 Information Technology and the Forest Sector Vienna 2005 Information Technology and the Forest Sector The emergence of digital information and communication technology (ICT) has created new challenges and opportunities for the global forest sector. This report – the first systematic and extensive assessment of ICT impacts on the forest sector – analyzes how ICT has affected the global forest sector to date and discusses the driving forces shaping ICT development and its implications for the sector’s future. The report also proposes research and policy strategies to help the forest sector adjust to the changes brought about by ICT development. Perhaps the most significant impacts of ICT development thus far have related to productivity increases and the greater demand for paper products. ICT has enhanced productivity and reduced production costs both in the forest industry and in forestry itself. Paper consumption has increased markedly as a result of modern office technology (personal computers, photocopiers, printers). The introduction of global positioning systems and satellite photography have revolutionized the monitoring and management of forest resources. These and many other examples, as well as their implications, are discussed in this report. Will the current trends in ICT development continue? What are the emerging new trends? The report suggests that impacts are likely to be more significant in the future than in the past and, in many cases, qualitatively different or even unexpected. A systematic consideration of the topic, which this report seeks to provide, can thus assist the forest sector in making the relevant – and inevitable – adjustments. The forest sector has only just begun to grasp the likely long-term impacts of ICT and to understand their potential magnitude. Views on the characteristics, number, and the timing of these impacts tend to differ significantly throughout the forest sector. Such differing views can be partly attributed to the lack of scientific research on the topic and the lack of relevant data. Thus ICT is providing new challenges not only to the global forest sector but to forest research. Indeed, a number of issues meriting further research are indicated in the report. Lauri Hetemäki is a senior researcher at the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and Sten Nilsson is the Deputy Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). International Union of Forest Research Organizations Union Internationale des Instituts de Recherches Forestières Internationaler Verband Forstlicher Forschungsanstalten Unión Internacional de Organizaciones de Investigación Forestal IUFRO World Series Vol. 18 ISSN 1016-3263 ISBN 3-901347-56-9 IUFRO, Vienna 2005 Information Technology and the Forest Sector Editors: Lauri Hetemäki Sten Nilsson Report by the IUFRO Task Force on “Information Technology and the Forest Sector” Task Force Partners: - International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) - Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) Recommended catalogue entry: Information Technology and the Forest Sector. Report by the IUFRO Task Force on “Information Technology and the Forest Sector,” jointly organized by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla). Lauri Hetemäki and Sten Nilsson (editors). Vienna, IUFRO, 2005, 235 pp. (IUFRO World Series Volume 18). ISSN 1016-3263 ISBN 3-901347-56-9 Cover photos: 1. Landscape from Koli, Finland. Photo by Erkki Oksanen (Metla). 2. Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite image of forest. Data available from U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 3. Online and print newspaper. Photo by Erkki Oksanen (Metla). Published by: IUFRO Headquarters, Vienna, Austria, 2005 © 2005 Lauri Hetemäki, Sten Nilsson, and IUFRO Available from: IUFRO Headquarters Secretariat c/o Mariabrunn (BFW) Hauptstrasse 7 1140 Vienna Austria Tel.: +43-1-8770151-0 Fax: +43-1-8770151-50 E-mail: office@iufro.org Web site: www.iufro.org Price: EUR 20 plus mailing costs Printed by: Eigner Druck, 3040 Neulengbach, Austria iii Contents Chapter 1. Introduction Lauri Hetemäki and Sten Nilsson 1 Chapter 2. ICT and the Forest Sector: The History and the Present Lauri Hetemäki, Anders Q. Nyrud, and Kevin Boston 8 Chapter 3. Surprising Futures Trina Innes, Carol Green, and Alan Thomson 24 Chapter 4. E-Commerce Anders Q. Nyrud and Åsa Devine 49 Chapter 5. ICT in Forest Business Kevin Boston 64 Chapter 6. ICT and Communication Paper Markets Lauri Hetemäki 76 Chapter 7. ICT and the Paperboard and Packaging Industry Peter Ince, Sanna Kallioranta, and Richard Vlosky 105 Chapter 8. ICT and the Wood Industry Anders Baudin, Lars Eliasson, Åsa Gustafsson, Lina Hagström, Klara Helstad, Anders Q. Nyrud, Jon Bingen Sande, Erlend Yström Haartveit, and Rune Ziethén 129 Chapter 9. ICT in Forest Management and Conservation Keith M. Reynolds, Jose G. Borges, Harald Vacik, and Manfred J. Lexer 150 Chapter 10. ICT and Social Issues Alan Thomson and Carol Colfer 172 Chapter 11. ICT and International Governance Ewald Rametsteiner, Tiina Vähänen, and Susan Braatz 197 Chapter 12. Conclusions and Implications Lauri Hetemäki and Sten Nilsson 221 v Preface This volume in the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) World Series presents the final report of the IUFRO Task Force on Information Technology and the Forest Sector. The Task Force was established by Lauri Hetemäki (Metla), Sten Nilsson (IIASA), and Michael Obersteiner (IIASA) in 2002, with Sten Nilsson as chairman. The work was coordinated by IIASA. The objectives of the Task Force were 1) to establish an operational network to identify and coordinate research and activities on the topic of information technology and the forest sector and 2) to produce a Task Force report. We would like to thank Risto Seppälä, the President of IUFRO, whose idea it was to establish the Task Force. We also thank IIASA, Metla, and the home institutions of the Task Force members for their contribution to the success of this work. We are first and foremost indebted to the authors of the chapters included in this volume. Special thanks go to IIASA’s Forestry Program for organizing and hosting the Task Force workshops and for handling and funding the production of the report. Technical editing of the report was carried out by Kathryn Platzer (IIASA); the Task Force administrative work was organized by Cynthia Festin (IIASA); and the Task Force Web pages coordinated by Ian McCallum (IIASA). We are indeed grateful for these crucial contributions to the work of the Task Force. The Editors Helsinki and Laxenburg, June 2005 vii Contributors Anders Baudin, Professor, Department of Forest and Wood Technology, School of Technology and Design, Växjö University, SE-351 95, Växjö, Sweden. E-mail: anders.baudin@vxu.se. Jose G. Borges, Professor, Department of Forestry, Institute of Agronomy, Technical University of Lisbon, D. E. Florestal, ISA Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: joseborges@isa.utl.pt. Kevin Boston, Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 97331, USA. E-mail: Kevin.Boston@oregonstate.edu. Susan Braatz, Senior Forestry Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. E-mail: susan.braatz@fao.org. Carol Colfer, Principal Scientist, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Jalan CIFOR, Situ Gede, Sindangbarang, Bogor Barat 16680, Indonesia, PO Box 6596, JKPWB, Jakarta 10065, Indonesia. E-mail: c.colfer@cgiar.org. Åsa Devine, PhD student, Department of Forest and Wood Technology, School of Technology and Design, Växjö University, SE-351 95, Växjö, Sweden. E-mail: asa.devine@ips.vxu.se. Lars Eliasson, Department of Forest and Wood Technology, School of Technology and Design, Växjö University, SE-351 95, Växjö, Sweden. Carol Green, Forest Resources Librarian, Natural Sciences Library, University of Washington, Box 352900, Seattle, WA 98195-2900. E-mail: ccgreen@u.washington.edu. Åsa Gustafsson, Department of Forest and Wood Technology, School of Technology and Design, Växjö University, SE-351 95, Växjö, Sweden. E-mail: Asa.gustafsson@vxu.se. Erlend Yström Haartveit, PhD student, Norwegian Forest Research Institute, Skogforsk Norwegian Forest Research Institute, Høgskoleveien 8, NO-1432 Ås, Norway. E-mail: Erlend.Haartveit@skogforsk.no Lina Hagström, Swedish Institute for Wood Technology Research, Borås, Sweden. Klara Helstad, Department of Forest and Wood Technology, School of Technology and Design, Växjö University, SE-351 95, Växjö, Sweden. Lauri Hetemäki, Senior Researcher, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Unioninkatu 40 A, 00170 Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: lauri.hetemaki@metla.fi. Peter Ince, Research Forester, United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53726-2398, USA. E-mail: pince@fs.fed.us. Trina Innes, Head, Education and Outreach , Department of Environment, Government of Alberta, Main Floor, Oxbridge Place, 9820–106 St. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5K 2J6. E-mail: Trina.Innes@gov.ab.ca. Sanna Kallioranta, PhD student, Graduate Research Assistant, Louisiana State University, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA. E-mail: skalli1@lsu.edu. Manfred J. Lexer, Doctor, Professor, Institute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Peter-Jordan- Strasse 82, A-1190 Vienna, Austria. E-mail: mj.lexer@boku.ac.at. Sten Nilsson, Professor, Deputy Director of IIASA, Leader of the Forestry Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria. E- mail: nilsson@iiasa.ac.at. viii Anders Q. Nyrud, Associate Professor, Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, PO Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway. E-mail: anders.qvale.nyrud@umb.no. Keith M. Reynolds, Research Forester, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. E-mail: kreynolds@fs.fed.us. Ewald Rametsteiner, Resarch Scholar, Forestry Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria. E-mail: ramet@iiasa.ac.at. Jon Bingen Sande, PhD Student, Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, PO Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway. E-mail: jon.bingen.sande@umb.no. Alan Thomson, Senior Research Scientist, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8Z 1M5. E-mail: athomson@pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca Harald Vacik, Doctor, Professor, Institute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Peter-Jordan-Strasse 82, A- 1190 Vienna, Austria. E-mail: harald.vacik@boku.ac.at Tiina Vähänen, Forestry Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. E-mail: Tiina.Vahanen@fao.org. Richard Vlosky, Professor, Director, Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, Louisiana State University, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA. E-mail: vlosky@lsu.edu. Rune Ziethén, National Testing and Research Institute, Borås, Sweden. E-mail: rune.ziethen@sp.se. 1 Chapter 1. Introduction Lauri Hetemäki and Sten Nilsson When reading the accounts of the 1870s and 1880s written by those who lived through them, one is inevitably struck by the similarities between the evolution of compound engines and ships and that of chips and computers, between the process of generation of a world economy through transcontinental transport and telegraph and the present process of globalization through telecommunication and the Internet (Perez, 2002). 1.1 Background “No topic in publishing and information has been more talked about in recent years than electronic and optical communication technology and its impact on existing media and on the future of paper” (Rennel et al., 1984). This statement is the first line of a book, published over 20 years ago, that considers the impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) on the paper industry and markets. 1 Since then, the world has experienced the spread of new ICT innovations to mass markets such as the Internet, broadband, and mobile phones. While the world forest sector has also been fundamentally changed by the development of ICT, there are still no comprehensive or systematic studies as to how. Nor are there any studies as to how ICT is likely to change the sector in the future. This study aims to fill some of those gaps. The lack of such studies is perhaps not surprising. Studying the impact of ICT on the forest sector would—in some ways—be like studying the impact of electricity or the internal combustion engine on the forest sector. ICT, like electricity and the engine, belongs to a category known as general purpose technologies: technologies that are basically everywhere and affect everything (Jovanovic and Rousseau, forthcoming). The role of ICT in the development of the forest sector is thus difficult to precisely identify and quantify. Moreover, immediate, short-term changes in general purpose technologies tend to have long-term impacts in terms of organizational, institutional, and cultural changes. Thus, the full impact of ICT will be apparent only after a long time lapse. As the quotation at the beginning of this chapter indicates, the “ICT revolution” is often understood as having changed and as continuing to change our societies just as the “industrial revolution” did in the late nineteenth century. Today, we know that the industrial revolution caused fundamental changes in the forest sector, for example, the advent of large-scale pulp and paper manufacturing. Similarly, the forest sector has not been immune to ICT, nor will it be immune to the ICT developments predicted to take place in the future. As many of the impacts of ICT on the forest sector are very general, a precise assessment of them is difficult. It is, however, important to try to analyze them. There are already a number of studies on particular aspects of ICT and their impact on specific forest-sector-related topics. Interest has been most significant and long-standing in the impacts of electronic media on paper consumption. There have also been studies on more contemporary issues, such as the role of global positioning systems (GPS) in forest inventory, e-business in the wood products industry, or radio frequency identification (RFID) labels in packaging, to mention a few. This publication presents an extensive discussion of ICT impacts on the forest sector—from the forestry industry to the end products in the market. This breadth of discussion has important advantages. First, as issues in the forest sector tend to be linked, it allows useful feedback between the various topics. For example, if ICT changes the consumption of forest products (e.g., paper), there will also be changes in the consumption of wood, and thus in the way we use our forests. It is 1 For a detailed definition of ICT, see the Appendix. [...]... Ab, Finland 7 Chapter 2 ICT and the Forest Sector: The History and the Present Lauri Hetemäki, Anders Q Nyrud, and Kevin Boston∗ 2.1 Background The image of the forest sector tends to be that of a natural-resource-intensive and mature sector This view obscures the fact that, throughout its history, the forest sector has adjusted to new inventions such as electronics For example, telegraphy and telephones... worthy of their own study The outline of the study is as follows Chapter 2 places the topic in context, summarizing the main impacts of ICT in the forest sector to date The chapter provides a historical background for the rest of the book, explaining how the relationship between ICT and the forest sector has developed thus far and how ICT is likely to affect the forest sector in the future Chapter 3 discusses... study does not aim to provide instant rules and formulas for reacting to ICT changes in the forest sector; its goal is to help the reader recognize patterns and interpret the meaning of the changes caused by ICT and to promote understanding of how ICT and the forest sector intersect As the topic of ICT impacts in the forest sector is still greatly neglected in forest research, it is imperative to draw... will have impacts on the forest sector One major theme raised by the chapter is the “digital divide” issue Chapter 11 considers the policy and governance dimension of ICT development It asks how ICT has affected, and is likely to affect, the governance of forest policy and forest issues Chapter 12 provides a summary of the study and discusses the strategy and policy implications of the findings 5 Appendix... into the wood products sector and into the infrastructure supporting the utilization of these products Chapter 9 reviews how ICT development has affected, and is likely to affect, the way in which forests are managed for the purposes of wood production and conservation Chapter 10 moves the focus of the study from the direct forest sector connection to a more general level It addresses the cultural and. .. Although there have been significant improvements in the development and use of ICT in forest assessment, there have not been similar gains in the technology used to maintain the chain of custody of forest products Historically, logs were branded with the hammer, and the driver carried a multisheet docket containing information about the origin and ownership of the wood Duplicate pages from these books... First, we analyze the impact of ICT on the communication paper sector and comment very briefly on the relationship between ICT and the paperboard and packaging sector (the latter topic is taken up in more detail in Chapter 7) Next, we turn to the wood products sector, and then move on to discuss the impact of ICT on forest management We conclude by briefly analyzing how ICT has influenced the various services... being the cornerstone of most forest management information systems The use of forests for many types of services, such as recreation, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration, has also been influenced by modern ICT It is evident, therefore, that ICT is having wide impacts on the forest sector, from silviculture to the marketing of forest products and the recreational use of forests The outline of the. .. in the sector during the late nineteenth century Moreover, the large increases in productivity in the forest sector after World War II would clearly have been impossible without the automation achieved by the increasing use of electronics, including computers The purpose of this chapter is to present a historical overview of information and communication technology (ICT) utilization in the forest sector. .. possibilities Consequently, we present scenarios, or rather visions, of the future impacts of ICT on the forest sector These are not intended to predict the future but rather are tools for thinking about the future They acknowledge that the future may be unlike the past and that it is shaped by human choice and action They also acknowledge that while the future cannot be foreseen, exploring future possibilities . www.iufro.org Information Technology and the Forest Sector IUFRO World Series Vol. 18 Information Technology and the Forest Sector Vienna 2005 Information Technology. Technology and the Forest Sector The emergence of digital information and communication technology (ICT) has created new challenges and opportunities for the