18 October 2023
On 12 October, the II Federal Forum on digitalization and IT in the timber industry Smart Forest 2023 was held in St. Petersburg, JSC Volga became one of its strategic partners.
Representatives of JSC Volga - Alexander Kollegaev, the Head of IT Department, and Andrey Skokov, the Head of Forestry Department, attended the forum.
During the plenary sessions, experts discussed the potential for implementing advanced technologies in the industry and what has changed in IT development programmes in forestry enterprises over the past year.
Sergey Dallada, the Head of the Department of Information Systems Design and Development of the Ministry of Information Development and Communications of Perm Territory, made a presentation with the topic: "Smart Forest. Designing the "Nature Management" domain on the GosTech platform".
The plenary discussion "Digital Reboot of the Timber Industry Complex" was attended by Sergey Shtrakhov, the Head of the Forestry Department for the North-West Federal District, Dmitry Kapitalinin, the Head of the Forestry Department for the Central Federal District, as well as representatives of leading forestry and pulp and paper companies.
One of the main issues that provoked a lively discussion were the implementation of the Federal Government Informational System of Forestry Complex (FGIS FC) in 2025 and the creation of a regulatory framework for forest management and digitalization of the forest complex, for the subsequent smooth transition to continuous forest management, and the need to create an Industrial Competence Centre (ICC) for the industry was also hotly discussed.
The session "Innovative technologies and digital solutions for timber industry" was attended by Denis Daineko, the Senior Researcher at the Irkutsk Research Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the topic: "Digital technologies in the timber industry: precision forestry in Russia", as well as Leonid Chistyakov, the Coordinator of the "Solutions for timber industry complex" direction of Neosystems North-West Ltd, with the topic: "Integrated automation of timber and pulp and paper industry in the conditions of import substitution".
The session "Digital Transformation of the Timber and Pulp and Paper Industry" was moderated by Vitaly Lipsky, the General Director of the National Forest Agency for Development and Investment.
The Forum's business programme was rounded off by the Foresight Panel Discussion: Technological Sovereignty and Sustainable Development of the Timber Industry. The panelists discussed obstacles to progress in the implementation of “Industry 4.0” in the industry, the relevance of the ESG-agenda and the future of digitalization of the timber industry complex.
Alexander Kollegaev, the Volga’s Head of IT, shared his impressions of the forum: "Smart Forest is a new information and discussion platform for discussing the role of digital and information technologies and industrial automation in the Russian forestry industry. In the context of foreign vendors' restrictions and changes in legislation, it was useful for us to share with our colleagues our experience in choosing available solutions".
"As part of the current agenda, more and more sectors of the economy are actively embracing digitalization, including the forestry industry," -added Andrey Skokov, the Head of the Forestry Department at Volga. - Many digital solutions are already being applied in forestry practice, which was previously considered an unattainable future. Today, various information systems are being fully implemented, one of them being the FGIS FC, which will become fully operational from 2025. This information system is, in fact, a model of continuous forest inventory. The functioning of such a digital tool opens up new opportunities for forest management for both the state and the forest user. With the help of this system it will be possible to determine in more detail the prospective areas of timber harvesting, it will be possible to plan more carefully the development of infrastructure in forest areas. In addition, the system will make it possible to optimize the implementation of forest management measures in the forest fund and to organize constant monitoring of negative processes in order to take timely measures to eliminate them".
JSC Volga Press Service
