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Forest field day: exhilarating expedition and insightful discussion

On June 14-th 2024, we visited the winners of the Best-Managed Forest in Lithuania 2023 competition, owned by our consortium partner, Melda. Surrounded by well-groomed trees and singing birds, we spread our message uniting forestry experts and lovers for a common goal - more innovative, safer, and healthier forests.

The Exemplary Forest Management competition, organized by the Lithuanian Forest and Land Owners Association (FOAL), has been held annually since 2004. It aims to transform the perception of forest owners from mere benefit seekers to creators of value. This event promotes sustainable, balanced, and responsible forestry practices, and Melda’s exemplary forest management has set a high standard for future participants.

During our visit, forest owner Meldas Lampickas shared valuable insights into his management strategies. He emphasized the importance of a minimalistic approach to forest intervention, noting that nature is largely self-sustaining and that human interference often disrupts the natural balance rather than enhancing it. 

“Moreover, maintaining a healthy mix of young and old trees is crucial for ensuring the forest’s longevity and ecological balance. Also, while pine trees are well-suited to Lithuanian soil, deciduous trees require more careful management and care,” he pointed out.

From the forest exploring site to the discussions on the stump

Other forestry enthusiasts, experts in their fields, and representatives of GFarm for LIFE consortium members also shared their perspectives. Algis Gaižutis Chairman of the Forest and Land Owners Association of Lithuania (FOAL) emphasized the importance of staying attuned to opportunities for forest owners. He shared examples from other European countries where forest owners can earn additional income through innovative practices, such as cultivating endangered species or providing habitats for specific animal breeds: “These practices not only contribute to biodiversity but also offer economic benefits to forest owners,” noted A. Gaižutis.

Augustas Alešiūnas, AgTech business angel and founder of ART21, highlighted the potential for Lithuania to establish itself as the leading country in ForestTech. He noted that just as Estonia is known for its e-government or Germany for its industry, we could be known for our digital forestry. 

“We’re in full swing with the GFarm project, which aims to create a framework for national carbon credit management and calculations in the AFOLU sector. Remarkably, it was the only project in the past 12 years that the EU funded with a consortium from the same country, as the LIFE programme typically funds only international projects. 

In this way, we demonstrated to Brussels that a small country can have strong players capable of creating a functional framework where science, business, and government collaborate effectively,” he explained. 

According to A. Alešiūnas, once developed, adapted, and tested, we can offer this model to other European countries. Each EU country needs until 2026 to decide how to manage their national carbon credit systems. Currently, no country has a real, reliable, and effective platform. So, this gives us a competitive edge.

“Also, the Forest 4.0 initiative, with its Center of Excellence, aims to develop, commercialize, and market forestry technologies, ultimately operating as a self-sufficient business attractive for international partnerships. This project is also a key tool in positioning Lithuania at the forefront of digital forestry innovation,” he added.

Mindaugas Šilininkas, vice-chairman of FOAL and coordinator-expert for the GFarm, presented the concept of carbon credits and their implementation. He explained that once a system is in place to count and evaluate these carbon credits, the government could confirm their legitimacy. Credits will be awarded for two main activities: planting new forests and improving forest management to increase biomass: 

“This system ensures that only added value is counted, encouraging practices that enhance the forest’s capacity to store carbon. This would most likely lead to the formation of a new market of carbon credit brokers, who by collecting larger amounts of them, could potentially attract big companies as clients,” said M. Šilininkas.

Continuing collaboration is essential

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants for their knowledge and ideas. This gathering provided an excellent opportunity to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, including forest owners, farmers, business leaders, NGOs, and policymakers interested in advancing the forestry sector in Lithuania and beyond. 

The event also reminded us once again of the critical role of collaboration in driving the forestry sector forward. We can achieve great success by coming together and working in a unified manner with business, government, and the public!

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AgriFood Forum 2023: synergy of LIFE projects in the tree planting initiative and inspiring discussion

We are excited to reminisce about some special memories from AgriFood Forum 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania, beginning with the tree planting that kicked-off this significant event! This initiative was a collaborative effort organized by GFarm for LIFE project’s coordinator AgriFood Lithuania and other partners, with the original idea of Life Terra Foundation.

Life Terra Foundation is a platform that collaborates with partners across Europe, empowering people to contribute to climate change mitigation. Their focus includes restoring degraded land, developing tree monitoring technologies, and educating future generations. The Life Terra project, developed under the LIFE programme and supported by the European Commission, shares common ground with the GFarm project, both working toward environmental sustainability.

The symbolic birch tree planting action provided an extraordinary opportunity to delve into the synergy of initiatives, particularly on the crucial topic of reforestation. This dialogue aligns seamlessly with the goals of GFarm and Life Terra projects.

It was a pleasure to meet Sven Kallen, the founder and secretary of an influential organization of Life Terra Foundation. Our insights on resilient and thriving forests and the importance of collaboration continued from the tree planting site to a dynamic panel discussion at the forum.

From the birch tree planting site to the Forum discussion stage

GFarm for LIFE team had an honor to take the main stage of the event, hosting a thought-provoking discussion “Zeroing In: Strategies and Synergies for a Carbon-Neutral Food Ecosystem” that left a lasting impact on the audience. It’s not every day that you can hear so much insight from top-level experts in one place!

In the introductory speech, Julia Nielson, Deputy Director of the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate: brought to light the critical issue of emissions in the agricultural sector, framing the crucial theme. Among the honorable panelists were President of the European Clusters Alliance Antonio Novo Guerrero, Executive Director at Global Dairy Platform Donald Moore, Sustainability & Crop Value Chain Manager at International Seed Federation Ben Rivoire, Project Manager at Foodscale Hub George Papapostolou, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture at Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania Kristina Simonaitytė, and Deputy Chairman at Linas Agro Group, CEO at AB Kauno Grūdai, and Chairman at PF Kekava Andrius Pranckevičius.

They unanimously acknowledged the absence of a singular solution to this challenge. However, experts emphasized that innovations can significantly contribute to measuring and reducing carbon emissions, with one condition: innovations must be the marriage between invention and market, so all of them must be applied to the market and be useful.

To sum up, this forum was a rare opportunity to absorb profound insights, collective wisdom, and efforts to act in a practical way. As we continue our journey towards a sustainable future, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants of the discussion and the tree planting initiative as well as the extraordinary panelists. Your presence and contributions have been invaluable in steering us towards a greener and more progressive tomorrow. Let’s keep planting the seeds of change!

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A significant European project to lower the GHG footprint of the forestry and agrifood industries only includes Lithuanian participants

Ten national partners will carry out the GFarm for LIFE project in accordance with the European Commission's aim of creating a climate-resilient future. Participants in the project's official launch event on September 20 at the Senators' Passage discussed the chance for Lithuania to stand out in Europe by achieving the project's goals: creating a framework for a national carbon sink certification and monitoring system, as well as creating a more effective GHG assessment and registry model for the agriculture, forestry, and other land use sectors.

Although the energy sector has the worst environmental effects, 20–24% of world emissions come from agriculture, forestry, and other land use. The same sector, which includes all of a country's land used for agriculture, is essential for mitigating climate change since it absorbs GHGs through soil, biomass, and wood.

The strategic goals that GFarm for LIFE partners has established will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of this procedure in Lithuania. The project's success is anticipated to serve as a model for identifying approaches to more sustainable land management and enhancing sector resilience at the European level.

"LIFE is the EU's main umbrella programme to promote action on the environment and climate. Lithuania is a leader in the climate change priority, as we are partners in 27 out of 44 projects. GFarm for LIFE's theme of addressing the challenges of agriculture is unique among them all. These are truly great achievements that raise the bar for even more ambitious action and deserve to be proud of the work we have already done," said Kęstutis Šetkus, Deputy Minister of Environment, in his welcome speech, and highlighted the Ministry's focus on the project as a project of great importance at both national and European level.

GFarm for LIFE will be coordinated by the cluster and the digital innovation center, AgriFood Lithuania. Project partners: National Paying Agency (NPA), the State Forest Service, Vytautas Magnus University, the Lithuanian Forest and Land Owners Association (LMSA), JSC ART21, JSC Dojus AGRO, JSC Litagra, JSC Melda, and JSC Strategy LABS.

"We frequently collaborate with foreign partners on worldwide projects, but this is a rare case where everyone involved is from Lithuania. Consequently, the national consortium will have the chance to influence European policy recommendations. Furthermore, the participation of such significant institutions as universities, the agrifood sector, forestry, and the companies that support innovation in these sectors demonstrates that Europe has confidence in us for a good reason. I am confident that a constructive partnership will help to achieve the best results", said Kristina Šermukšnytė-Alešiūnienė, Director of AgriFood Lithuania, sharing the project's prospects.

All participants in the discussion agreed that this initiative represents exceptional potential for Lithuania. The development of a trustworthy GHG credit certification process and registration platform that can be used throughout Europe is being done in collaboration with public agencies, non-profit organizations, academia, and business. Most importantly, the partners regard this activity as long-term, high-impact national cooperation rather than just a project that produces methodology and IT tools.

The budget of almost €2.7 million is supported and partly financed by the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, with the European Commission contributing 60% of the funds. GFarm for LIFE will run for 3 years.

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GFarm for LIFE Opening Event – Kick-off meeting

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