SmartForest 2025 – Data Spaces & AI for Forestry & Environment

Conferences Event Projects Artificial Intelligence conferences Data Spaces Environmental Data Events FutureForest Projects SmartForest

John Boudewijn

07 Apr 2025

The first edition of the SmartForest conference took place at the forestry department of the Technical University of Munich in Freising. The event featured two days of knowledge exchange and deep discussions between attendees from the worlds of research and practice, focusing on the future of forests and forestry.

Dr. Werner Rammer addresses a full lecture hall. To the left is a sign of the "Zentrum Wald Forst Holz Weihenstephan", while on the right is a projected slide welcoming people to SmartForest.

Check out the event photos: https://smartforest.ai/en/smartforest-2025-photo-gallery

Concepts such as Data Spaces, innovative uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the potential of digital solutions within forestry and silviculture were the central theme of the conference. Aside from four main sessions, the programme included eight in-depth sessions, as well as an outdoor session, where specific topics could be discussed more extensively. Three keynotes provided the conference’s framework. Prof. Dr. Rupert Seidl of the TU Munich and Dr. Ruth Dirsch of LWF Bayern provided their scientific perspectives, while forest manager Martin Roth ensured the practical view was also well-represented. Roth particularly noted how important it is to have scientific developments be accessible and usable for practical applications.

The conference’s topics found a warm and interested welcome within the forestry community. Besides a large German contingent, SmartForest 2025 also attracted international guests from Austria, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. With over 150 attendees, the event was entirely sold out.

The large amount of practice-relevant presentations, as well as the opportunity to try out new tools in the nearby forest during the outdoor session, were of particular note and drew much interest from participants.

Dr. Werner Rammer, Dr. Fabian Fassnacht, Janusch Vajna-Jehlem and Dr. Felipe de Miguel Diez are at the front of the lecture hall. In the crowd, seen from the back, a grey-haired man in a brown jacket raises a finger.

The event was special to both the organisers and participants. The strong interest from within the community emphasised the importance of strong collaborations and the robust exchange of ideas surrounding digital solutions within the forestry sector. It’s clearly a field of research that has massive potential to be developed further.

The conference was established for the FutureForest project, which focuses on the use of AI in forestry, and organised by project partners wetransform GmbH, M.O.S.S. GmbH, TU Munich, and Freie Universität Berlin. The project and conference were funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) via the funding programme „KI-Leuchttürme für Umwelt, Klima, Natur und Ressourcen“ (Funding code: 67KI21002A). In this, BMUV is supported by Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH as a project organiser.