Steep Land Harvesting PGP Progress Review

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Future Forests Research Limited (FFR) commissioned an independent progress review of Steep Land Harvesting—a Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme—which you’ve previously featured in Friday Offcuts. Steep Land Harvesting is led by FFR. These progress reviews are a standard part of the monitoring of PGP programmes.

The review team consisted of Rob van Rossen, an independent registered forestry consultant, and Mark Brown, Professor of Forestry Operations & Director of the Forestry Research Centre at the University of Sunshine Coast, Australia.

The summary report is available here.

Objectives of the Steep Land Harvesting PGP programme:

The Steep Land Harvesting programme aims to improve productivity and worker safety by developing and commercialising a range of new harvesting technologies in the tree felling and extraction phase of steep country harvesting operations.

The programme has developed and commercially released a number of products. These include the ClimbMAX steep land harvester that can fell and bunch trees on steep slopes of up to 45 degrees—four are in commercial use with a fifth under construction.

The programme has also released the Cutover Cam that uses wireless camera technology to provide clear views of forestry operations on steep slopes; HarvestNav, an onboard navigation system; and the Alpine Grapple designed to increase grapple use on steep land, therefore removing people from hazardous areas.

The programme completed successful testing of remote controlled tree felling earlier this year, representing the first time that remote control technology has been used in steepland forest harvesting operations. The forest harvesting contractor was able to fell and bunch trees at the top of a steep slope, out of harm’s way.

The Steep Land Harvesting programme has acted as a catalyst for a renewed focus on innovation in forest harvesting.

Findings of the progress review:

The progress review highlighted the significant value of the programme, the substantive progress that has been made to date and the strong support from the majority of industry.

The progress review found that the Steep Land Harvesting programme is a world class research and development programme with the majority of the programme contributing to world class development in forest operations, and that it is leading the way in research in a number of areas.

It also found that the Steep Land Harvesting programme has made good progress towards its outcomes, and noted that it has achieved a level of recognition internationally by taking a leadership role in the development of mechanised forest operations on steep slopes.

The progress review concluded that the programme can claim leadership in a number of areas such as its activity in harvest visioning systems, which has taken camera and networking technology to develop new robust forestry application not yet widely explored in forestry operations.

The progress review concluded that the programme has effective governance, management and decision-making, in addition to sound financial management.

The reviewers have made recommendations to assist the programme with tracking its progress, meeting its goals, and therefore delivering the expected economic benefits for New Zealand.

MPI and Future Forests Research Limited are now considering the progress review findings and recommendations in detail, and how we can best address these.

Background on the PGP and progress reviews

The PGP provides an essential springboard to enable New Zealand to stay at the forefront of primary sector innovation. It invests in long-term innovation programmes that are jointly funded by government and industry, and aims to boost the value, productivity and profitability of our primary sector, and deliver long-term economic growth and sustainability across the value chain, from producer to consumer.

Each contracted programme within the PGP is subject to ongoing governance, monitoring and assurance. One aspect of this monitoring is conducting external programme progress reviews. These are required at least once during a programme’s lifetime in order to assess progress toward the intended outcomes. The progress review of the Steep Land Harvesting programme is the second such review to be carried out. Progress reviews of other PGP programmes will progressively occur (and be made available in detailed summary form on MPI’s website).

Further information about the PGP is available on MPI’s website.

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