KUCHING: The Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Finland’s Arbonaut Ltd, a leading international company in forestry and technology.
FDS, in a statement today, said a Sarawak delegation led by its director, Datuk Hamden Mohammad, inked the memoranda at a ceremony at the Joensuu Science Park in Finland on Tuesday.
It said under the MOA, Arbonaut Ltd has been appointed as the consultant for the project, ‘Quantifying Stand Structure Dynamics and Productivity in Natural Forest and Planted Forest Stands Using Airborne 3D Ranging Systems’.
“The project is expected to add value to forest management through the use of 3D LiDAR technology to measure forest structure, growth dynamics, and productivity in both natural forests and industrial tree plantations.
“It will also provide more accurate forest inventory parameters, including tree height, volume, biomass, carbon stocks as well as risk assessments for forest fires,” according to the statement.
FDS also signed a five-year MOU with Arbonaut Ltd, which outlines collaboration in key areas, including forest carbon assessment, carbon project development and trading, as well as joint research in biodiversity, forest products, fire management, soil science and pathology.
Hamden said the signing of the MOA and MOU marked an important step in strengthening international cooperation in forestry.
“This partnership opens up significant opportunities in forestry technology, particularly in the field of carbon to support climate goals and sustainable forest management,” he said.
The FDS delegation is also scheduled to conduct a benchmarking visit to several locations, including John Deere Company and the Finnish Forest Centre.
The visit will focus on knowledge sharing and technology transfer related to the application of LiDAR technology in forest harvesting machinery and high-resolution LiDAR data mapping. – BERNAMA
