Programme for the qualitative and quantitative development and expansion of the forest assets and for the modernisation of wood utilisation in Hungary

("FOREST-WOOD" Research Programme)

In February 2001., a consortium of twenty members submitted the above proposal for the National Research and Development Programs, with a twofold purpose:

• To help preventing ecological dangers while meeting the increasing wood product demand through the qualitative improvement and expansion of the Hungarian national forest asset;
• To resolve the contradictions between the needs of forest protection and increased utilisation of wood – an environment friendly, renewable resource.

The programme incorporates eight thematic areas:

• Qualitative improvement of the forest assets,
• Professional preparation of new afforestation programs,
• Qualitative and quantitative assessment of long-term forest assets,
• Energy-related utilisation of forest products,
• New methods for utilising chip and pulp material,
• Modernising high-quality roundwood utilisation,
• New, competitive forest product development,
• Integrating forest and wood industry developments into rural development programs.

Each of the above areas is head up by a top Hungarian expert of the given field. Many researchers as well as industrial partners partake in each research task.

The consortium consists of three research and consulting institutions, and seventeen forestry and wood industries companies. The co-ordinating institution is the University of West Hungary. The project started in 2001 and terminates in 2004, and has a total budget of € 1,920,000. Of this, the National Research and Development Program granted € 1,200,000, while consortium members finance the remaining € 720,000.

Some of the achievements up to date are detailed below:

• Assessing the species composition of forests and woodlands, and established a national database, as a preparation for shaping and implementing a forestry species strategy;
• Pinpointing the areas that may be used for afforestation in the Great Plain area (a substantial part of Hungary);
• Determination of the requirements for a seedling planter configuration, and developing it, to facilitate the mass-production of propagation materials;
• Developing methods for the identifying the origin of wood and a quality certification system for the Hungarian wood industry;
• Pinpointing sampling locations for and performing a critical literature review on the most important Hungarian wood species (black locust, beech, oaks, pine and poplar);
• Proposing new forestry practices for producing wood for energy uses, and designing and building experimental pyrolisis appliances and gas generators;
• Proposing new composite products that might be viable for Hungarian production, and starting laboratory scale experiments to assess their properties;
• Modelling Hungarian sawmills to estimate the technological needs for processing the high volume of logs expected to result from mass-scale future afforestation programmes;
• Laboratory-scale experiments for applying new drying and steaming methods;
• Application of the reflection-optical stress-assessment in wood industries for the first time;
• Preparing integration of the wood industries into the Hungarian recycling legislation;
• Extending the use of under-utilised species to new application (e.g. garden furniture);
• Developing new plane knives that provide extra fine surface quality that makes sanding unnecessary.