Objective
The WeevilSTOP project will significantly increase competitiveness and sustainability for the large number of SMEs in the European Forestry and Forest-based Industries. About 16 million Private Forest Owners manage 60% of Europe’s forest, generating 3 million jobs and create a total turnover of €300Bn annually.
Our community has a great and urgent need for innovation in order to substitute currently used insecticides that are banded by new EU Regulations and by certification bodies due to health and environmental issues. To prevent a huge economical loss in the range of annually €140 M in EU-27 for the forestry sector, we need alternative insecticide-free plant protection methods.
Our idea is to develop a cost-effective and sustainable insecticide-free pest management method for young forest trees that is even more effective than insecticides. We propose to create innovative technology for environment-friendly, toxicologically safe, and sustainable pest management of one of the most destructive pests in tree planting and re-forestation of conifer forests – the pine weevil Hylobius abietis.
We will achieve this by 1) using a refined wax formulation, which mechanically protects the stem bark from feeding damages inflicted by the adult pine weevil; 2) developing a new Waxing System that precisely coats the main stem of conifer seedlings with wax, and 3) developing a new Pick-and-Place System to handle all kinds of containerized grown spruce seedlings.
Our innovation will prevent the private forest owners from an economical loss of annually €140 M in EU-27. Moreover, the private forest owners will benefit from substantial savings in costs for pest management, increased revenues from up to 8% higher wood production resulting from 10% lower seedlings mortality rate, and new market opportunities for certified wood, improved working environment for protecting human health, CO2 savings, and an improved environment.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP7-SME-2012
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
BSG-SME-AG - Research for SME associations/groupingsCoordinator
3257 LARVIK
Norway
See on map
Participants (15)
Participation ended
1537 LUXEMBOURG
See on map
1000 BRUXELLES
See on map
0161 OSLO
See on map
751 04 UPPSALA
See on map
10149 Tallinn
See on map
LV 4013 Limbazu Novads
See on map
33095 SAN GIORGIO DELLA RICHINVELDA
See on map
02270 Espoo
See on map
05100 ROYKKA
See on map
791 71 FALUN
See on map
62207 LUUNJA VALD TARTUMAA
See on map
N-0580 OSLO
See on map
00186 ROMA
See on map
0313 Oslo
See on map
750 07 Uppsala
See on map