A new series of workshops for members of Future Forests Research (FFR) in New Zealand is putting the latest scientific knowledge straight into the hands of commercial foresters. The first event was a two-day Quantitative Silviculture Workshop. Source: Scion
This was important for FFR, which was formed as a partnership of industry stakeholders and research provider Scion to maximise the benefit of technology transfer for New Zealand forestry.
Scion and FFR are constantly seeking more effective ways of embedding research findings into industry practices. Producing research reports for FFR members had only limited success as a technology transfer mechanism.
The way to do it, according to industry, was through more face-to-face contact.
Before the workshop program was decided, potential participants were surveyed to gauge their topics of interest.
“The survey results helped us tailor the workshop content so it would be directly applicable to attendees,” said Dr John Moore, Scion’s Forest Management Science Leader.
“We condensed about 70 research reports into three topic areas and designed a series of practical and highly interactive workshops relevant to the forest industry.”
Another key benefit of the workshops was that they were recognised by the New
Zealand Institute of Forestry as counting towards participants’ continuing professional development.
Following the success of the two silviculture workshops, held in Rotorua in June and in Christchurch in August, the Scion and FFR teams are now designing the program for a productivity workshop scheduled for delivery at both locations before the end of the year.
A third workshop on resource assessment is planned for early 2013.
Scion and FFR are planning to hold workshops annually to update foresters’ knowledge and aim to create ‘communities of practice’ where foresters can share knowledge and examine issues.
