Bioregions Open Innovation Challenge: a year in review
A year after announcing the winners of the Bioregions Open Innovation Challenge launched in 2022, the winners from Finland, Serbia and Spain shared their journey implementing their projects in North Rhine-Westphalia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and North Karelia.
Biomonitoring station
The biomonitoring station is a set of smaller devices designed to detect, measure and monitor ambient air quality, including temperature and humidity, ground-level ozone, and forest smoke.
During this one year, the team assembled the devices, developed the data-collection software, and conducted field tests. The station was tested in a natural environment in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Lessons learned
“The biomonitoring station is a simple, accurate, financially sound, and easy-to-use set of devices; the sensors showed satisfactory measurement accuracy,” said Dr Zoran Poduška, the project head.
During the tests, the team noticed the need to design a new device – an underground temperature and humidity sensor. This new device could help monitor disturbances like windstorms and early warning bark beetle calamities.
Assessing and monitoring carbon offsets in forests
Föra forest technologies (föra) has a forest intelligence platform called förecast, which allows the assessment of carbon offsets in forests. This tool estimates the carbon stock in the forest and measures other forest variables using remote sensing and artificial intelligence.
One of the most competitive functionalities of förecast is the capacity to calculate accurate and updated estimations of forest variables critical to forest management decisions.
Lessons learned
The number of players in the forest carbon market increased exponentially. For example, 146 million credits were retired (carbon credits that have been permanently removed from circulation after being purchased and claimed by an entity to offset its greenhouse gas emissions) in 2022, more than double in comparison with 2019.
“However, some companies lack reliability and transparency in how they calculate or estimate carbon”, said Iñigo Lizarralde, CEO of Föra. Consequently, this created reputational damage to the whole sector.
Förecast emphasises the need to guarantee accuracy and reliability, i.e., scientific soundness, carbon estimates, and carbon monitoring. It also must make biological sense since “we’re talking about trees.”
Föra designed an almost-ready feasible prototype in North Rhine-Westphalia, and they were in contact with the Basque Country and Catalonia for future collaborations.
Working with local forest owners
The Zerti Carbon project involved working with local independent forest owners who have been managing their forests. Together with the forest owners, the project examined their forest management practices. Drone flights were carried out, and tree mapping was conducted for biomass calculations.
Lessons learned
It is important to include the forest owner during the project’s implementation. For example, it is important to understand how much forest owners know about and contribute to carbon markets. One challenge for the company was finding a forest owner interested in this earning model for their property and new forest management practices.
For example, some owners had doubts about the CO2 markets. The project was conducted in North Karelia, Finland, and Catalonia, Spain.
Bioregions Open Innovation Challenge
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Plus, explore Föra and Zerti Carbon factsheets from the Forestry Speed Dating webinar series.