Participating organisations

The KWF was founded in 1964 by the German Länder and the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The German Centre for Forest Work and Technology (KWF) is a registered non-profit association and is supported by more than 2600 members.
The KWF is the competence center for forestry work, forestry technology and wood logistics in Germany and Europe and provides advice to all key players in the forestry, wood and bio-energy sectors.
As a transnational non-profit organization, the KWF focuses on all major tasks for securing the future, preventing accidents and protecting the environment in a precautionary way.
The KWF examines and certifies forestry technology, tools, supplies and protection equipment.
Furthermore, the KWF fulfills a cross-sectional function bridging the worlds of research, practice and industry for the areas of forestry, wood and bio-energy.
The KWF-Tagung is the largest forestry fair worldwide and includes a congress, specialist excursions and a forestry machinery and novelty show.
In addition, the KWF organizes special shows on the subject of forest and wood, e.g. at INTERFORST, LIGNA.
At its headquarters in Groß-Umstadt, the KWF organizes specialist forums, seminars, workshops and expert talks on current topics related to forest practice. In 2017 the KWF organized a special event “IT applications in Forestry” where all aspects from Forest inventories to data management in harvesting operations but also IT based learning systems were presented and discussed.
The KWF has a leading role in evaluation and introducing IT application in forestry. Examples are the NAVLOG process were the potential for rationalization along the logistic chain is improved in applying geoinformation data . The process also includes safety aspects for example in the identification of places where accidents happen and the automatic information of rescue teams.

www.kwf-online.de

The Centre Forestier de la région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (www.centre-forestier.org) was created in 1975. Located in the regional park of Luberon, at La Bastide des Jourdans in South-East France, its buildings are entirely wooden made, on a forest of 18ha.

Vocational and educational training in trees, forest and wood fuel domain is its main activity, with many possible courses, both for young people and for adults, through work-based learning, educational and vocational training.

The Centre Forestier provides training for all kind of forestry activities, pruning, use of mechanical instruments (chainsaws, strimmers, and forestry machines) and forestry enterprise management.
These trainings lead to different certifications:
- Secondary school,
- A Level in Management and direction of forest work sites,
- Professional Agricultural Certificate in Forest operations – Loggers,
- Professional Agricultural Certificate in Forest operations – Forest machines operators,
- Professional Diploma - Forest work sites Manager,
- Specialisation Certificate for Tree surgeons.

Furthermore, the Centre Forestier offers different training diplomas adapted to clients’ specific needs (small enterprises and big public organisations at national level, such as the French operator of the public electricity transmission network ENEDIS).

In 2017, 1160 adults and 200 youngsters and apprentices have been trained. The training center employs 45 full-time salaries, 21 of which are forestry trainers for loggers, machine operators and tree surgeons.

At the same time, the Centre Forestier is actively involved and plays a significant role within the development of the professional forest sector. Between 1995 and 2005, its Director, Christian Salvignol, has led the association “Interprofession forêt-bois Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur” of which he is still a member.
Currently, he is the founding President of the network “Association Nationale pour la Formation aux Métiers de la Forêt - ANPFMF”, that gathers together most forestry training centres in France.
At present, he is the Chairman of the regional association PEFC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, which promotes forest certification for a Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).

www.centre-forestier.org

CTFC, based in Solsona (Lleida), was formed initially between the County Council of Solsonès and the University of Lleida, and later the Provincial Council of Lleida, the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation, the Government of Catalonia and the Autonomous University of Barcelona were incorporated.).

The CTFC is appointed to the Administration of the Government of Catalonia and interacts with it by the relevant Department in the field of forests. It also belongs to the CERCA network of Catalan research centers.
As a result of its continuous growth, today, the institution employs over eighty professionals (including scientists, technicians, fellows and administrative personnel) that work in collaboration with different administrations, institutions and companies in their day-to-day.
CTFC activity is not only focused on competitive research. Indeed, technology transfer and training, which represent a significant volume of its activity, exploit its research results and contribute to the creation of a knowledge-based society and the generation of public debate. Technology transfer, which is arranged through agreements with private and public institutions, is complemented by the organisation of seminars addressed to the general public and sectoral actors (forest managers, forest owners, foresters, farmers, decision-makers, scientists, etc.) at national and international level. CTFC training activities range from the baseline training for forest workers and lifelong learning courses to high-skilled post-graduate and master courses.
The entity is one of the leading applied research centres in Spain, member of the administration board of the Forest Technology Platform, active member of the Biomass Platform and the National Agency of EFESC in Spain.
As a spin-off centre of the University of Lleida, CTFC has a long tradition of receiving foreign masters’ students from European and international universities on forestry issues for periods of a few weeks to a few months, and has all the supervising capacities needed to ensure a fruitful stay for the visiting students.

CTFC’s experience and expertise focus on European projects on forestry, environment, rural development, biodiversity, equal opportunities, education and training, and since 2004 it is involved in a specific training related to issues of entrepreneurship. CTFC manages a business incubator to encourage labour market integration, promote an entrepreneurial culture and fight unemployment.

www.ctfc.cat

Federal Reseach- and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW)

The Federal Reseach- and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW) is a multidisciplinary research and training institution and holds the legal status of an institution under public law. The BFW supports the economic, ecological and socially sustainable development of the society and its environment through the preparation of scientific guidelines and the dissemination of knowledge concerning the multi-functional utilization of natural resources. In pursuance of research, monitoring and knowledge transfer the BFW focuses in its work on the strategic and thematic fields of sustainable forest management, forest and climate, bioenergy, forest and water, biodiversity and natural hazards.
The BFW is organized in six Research Departments, two Forest Training Centres, and several internal service units.
The Forestry Training Centre Ossiach is located in Ossiach, Carinthia. It has access to a training forest, which is for all practical training. The aim of the forestry training centre is the education of forest professionals, mountain farmers and junior forestry staff, who should receive professional education e.g. in sustainable forest management or timber harvesting together with technical ability and manual skills. The forestry training centre Ossiach has striven for years to have good contact with colleagues from neighbouring countries such as Slovenia or Italy.

bfw.ac.at

EFESC was founded in 2009 in the frame of a EU Leonardo Project. It is a membership organization of industry representatives of forestry training centers, of representatives of national health and safety authorities, forest industry and organisations which manage and monitor the skills and competence certification processes on national level. Project partners KWF, Natuurinvest (Inverde) and CTFC are national agencies of EFSC.
The objectives of EFESC are to facilitate the mobility of the forestry workforce all over Europe and to define and to maintain technical, ergonomical and social minimum standards for chainsaw work in Europe. The EFESC standards also contribute to the comparability of existing qualifications in Europe.
To achieve these objectives EFESC established an organizational structure and standards for chainsaw work. There are 4 levels of standards and competences which cover all working situations with chainsaws from cutting to length to felling operations in windblown forest areas. EFESC offers assessments in certified assessment centers. The assessment centers issue certificates to persons which pass the assessment. The certificates are recognized in 8 European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Rumania, Spain . New assessment centers have been accredited in Poland and in April 2018 an assessment center in the Czech Republic will be audited.
More than 35 accredited assessors are implemented in the assessment. They are employed by forestry training centers and not paid by EFESC. At the moment there are more than 1800 holders of EFESC certificates.

www.efesc.org