HIGH PROFILE
Lidar Vegetation Assessment
allow our customers to build apps – simple but powerful iPhone type applications – that usually do one thing. An app could calculate the area of a harvesting block; another send you an alert when you’re crossing into a riparian zone; or identify if you’re on your property. So there’s a lot of different app’s being built to support operational and planning activities.
Cloud-based enterprise solutions have attracted interest because companies don’t need to invest in a bunch of servers and hardware to support their technology solutions. People want the SalesForce equivalent of a GIS. They want to log on, see their data and make use of it right away. Esri has stood up some wonderful architectures for this. Those are the technical aspects
but there are also business issues that people are trying to grapple with, which are even more important. It’s no secret we’re in the most incredible downturn in the history of the forest industry. Companies remaining in business have taken very structured approaches to planning and operations affecting cost savings, maximising revenue, and more. These companies are surviving. The companies that historically relied on luck are quickly disappearing. The companies that have remained are looking at technology as a way to give themselves a competitive advantage.
The major questions we are being asked are: how do I increase my forest revenue and economic value of my forest? Nowadays, we need to sharpen our pencils, analyse what it is we’re purchasing, and minimise our loss and risks. It’s about increasing revenue and continuing to squeeze every ounce of economic value out of our existing land base. Another aspect of success is to efficiently report and track regulatory requirements, those seemingly endless reports to
Government agencies and environmental certification auditors. And then of course there are investor reports to shareholders and internal reports used as part of the decision- making process – the point is forester managers are responsible for a huge number of reports. Forestry organisations have streamlined their staff but these reports still have to come out, so they’re looking to us to improve efficiencies and streamline the regulatory reporting process. Finally, businesses are trying to
improve the evaluation of their assets. In countries where private land is the dominant source of timber, there are multiple resource values and a lot of them are non- timber – they could be cell tower leases, hunting leases, grazing permits, aggregates or recreational opportunities. So they want to understand and look at the complete revenue picture in a new way. Historically they often
just looked at the timber but now they are even looking at selling boulders for landscaping projects. They also need to schedule their revenue stream - they don’t want to lock up timber for carbon projects over 14 years that they’ll need to harvest in five. These are all ways to cut costs and improve revenue.
So many variables need to be considered when managing a forest that even a forestry professional, with years of experience, cannot adequately understand along with the many day-to-day challenges and opportunities that arise. A geographic information system will help you analyse all that and then provide the best solution. It’s no longer a ‘what if’ situation; in the world we live in today it’s about what’s next. Don’t give me 50 options to choose from, instead give me the best option – help me optimise the planning process and guide me so as a forester or land
manager, I can make a better decision.
IFI: Are you finding the market you’re serving is broad and difficult to target? PE: : Every forestry organisation out there that manages land typically will have a GIS. The key to what I do and what Esri is all about is helping people improve and add value to their GIS investment. When someone buys a GIS it’s usually for a single reason such as to manage road networks, maintain timber inventories, create a harvesting plan, and on it goes. There’s an underlying rationale for the initial investment, but we know through our efforts with the global forestry community that there are numerous additional business benefits. That’s because they have data that can be reused for other purposes. So you’ve got all your roads, your timber inventory, all your blocks and your schedules in there; why not manage other parts
Timber Inventory System (Alaska) FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012 | International Forest Industries 71
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