Swedish-Finnish workshop on spruce bark beetle damages, May 25th 10 AM to 1 PM

There have been vast spruce bark beetle damages in Sweden during the last years. There is an increased probability for the same problems to occur also in Finland. The Preparedness for emerging forest pest risks in Finland (PREPARE) project is funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by IBF, Tapio and Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission (DG REFORM). The project goal is to create a contingency plan for the SBB in Finland.

We invite you to participate in our workshop and learn more about the bark beetle epidemic and countermeasures taken in Sweden, together with views on how we could apply the Swedish experiences in Finland. We arrange an online workshop on Wednesday, May 25th 10 am – 1 pm EEST, where the Swedish project “Stop the Beetles” (Stoppa Borrarna) will be presented. The workshop is intended for actors in forestry, researchers, forest owners and others interested in the subject.

The workshop will be arranged as a Teams event and will be held in English. Please sign up on the link below  for the workshop no later than May 20th.

Sign up

A Teams link will be sent to those who have registered to attend.

Workshop Programme:

10:00 Opening, presentation of the PREPARE project
Risto Päivinen, Tapio

10:10 Bark beetle situation in Finland
Markus Melin, LUKE

• Special attention to inventory and monitoring methods

10:40 Situation in Sweden part 1: biological considerations
Jan-Olov Weslien, Skogsforsk

• What where the long-term and short-term causes of the outbreak in Sweden the outbreak in Sweden?
• Role of natural predators
• Role of protected areas

11:00 Situation in Sweden, part 2: mitigation measures and operational considerations
Patrik Karlsson, SKS

• Presentation of the “Stoppa Borrarna” project
• Responsibilities of different actors in Sweden
• What have been the major bottlenecks in dealing with the recent outbreak?
• Lessons learned: could something have been done differently?

11:20 Commentary: Bark beetle situation in the Åland Islands
Mats-Johan Flinck, Ålands landskapsregering

11:30 Break

11:40 Discussions in small groups (goal: 4-5 groups, depending on attendance), preliminary topics:

• Is there any way to prepare for logistics and workforce needs during an outbreak?
• How to make forest owners and professionals more aware of the risks in Finland?
• Can we enhance natural resilience towards sbb (predators)?
• How should we develop inventory and monitoring?
• Protected areas

12:20 Findings of the groups

12:50 Closing remarks
Risto Päivinen and Henry Schneider, Tapio

13:00 End of workshop