National Simulation Model holds annual meeting at the UACh

Developing and defining a work plan for 2023 is the main task of the annual meetings held by the National Simulation Model (MNS), a forestry research center whose purpose is the construction of an integrated system of forest inventories and growth and yield models. to support sustainable management and increase the profitability of forest plantations.

On this occasion, the activity was carried out on December 15 in the Jorge Millas Hall of the Austral University of Chile, a place attended by 18 representatives of the U. de Concepción, UACh, CONAF and MNS partner forestry companies: Forestal Mininco, CAMBIUM, Manulife Investment, Vista Hermosa Forest Investments and Bosques Los Lagos.

The Director of the MSN, Dr. Guillermo Trincado, an academic from the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Natural Resources of the UACh, made an evaluation of this conference and expressed that “this is one of the various activities that are carried out annually in conjunction with the institutions members, in addition to monthly meetings of a Technical Committee and bimonthly with the Board of Directors to evaluate the progress of this initiative. On this occasion, an extended meeting is held with members of both our Technical Committee and the Board of Directors to set goals for the year 2023”.

For his part, Julio Becker, from Forestal Mininco and member of the Board of Directors, highlighted the importance of this meeting for future actions. “There is previous work and this is the culmination of that work. The goals for the next year are focused on two important areas: maintaining the system and its tests, which is the basis for the development of the models and, on the other hand, incorporating new technologies”, he pointed out.

Becker also mentioned another important aspect, which is the incorporation of other study houses, in addition to the Universidad Austral de Chile and the U. de Concepción, which are already part of the model. “Together with these institutions we want to attract more forestry companies from Chile and also from abroad,” he stressed. It is worth mentioning that there are already subsidiaries in Brazil and Argentina that operationally use the simulation systems developed by the MNS.

In the opinion of Angelo Belmar, member of the Technical Committee and representative of the company Manulife Investment, “this meeting is very important since the simulator is used to generate projections of future volumes, and for us to obtain those projections and know what we are going to do.” to harvest next year and in 80 more years is relevant and helps us determine the value of the forest and the value of our company”.

Second Technical Conference 2022

On December 14, the Second Technical Conference of the MNS was held, which on this occasion was organized by the companies Bosques Los Lagos and Manulife Investment. During the morning, the participants visited plantations of Eucalyptus globulus located in the Purranque area on the Coligual, Tres Cruces and Las Cruces Lot 1 properties, owned by Forestal Bosques Los Lagos SA

Within this framework, they discussed the management of these plantations under the growth conditions of the southern area of ​​the species’ distribution. Committee members were able to share experiences in the establishment and silviculture of the Eucalyptus globulus and compare three situations with differences in age and productivity.

During the afternoon, there was a visit to the Pumillahue forestry trial, located on the property of the same name and managed by Manulife Investment. This assay belongs to the network installed by the MNS in 2008. “Today it is close to its harvest age, which is why options for its latest measurements and the use of information that could be captured before its deactivation in the Bank were discussed. of Data of the MNS”, reported Dr. Trincado.

Strengthening the link with the academic sector

For the MNS team, an important aspect to highlight for 2023 is the incorporation of undergraduate and postgraduate students for the development of research work, based on the significant amount of accumulated data from the extensive network of permanent plots and silvicultural trials. that have been maintained and measured annually by member companies and CONAF.

Conversations have also begun with the Faculty of Forest Sciences and the Conservation of Nature of the Ul de Chile so that it becomes a member of the MNS as of March 2023 and makes contributions to various lines of research through some of its academics.