15 – 17 October 2024 | Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
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The symposium is titled Silviculture 4.0 – this event will focus on the theme of Smart technology from nursery to field. The event will take place from 15th to 17th October 2024 in the picturesque town of Howick, located in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa.
The symposium aims to gather industry stakeholders to learn about the latest silviculture technologies and trends from nurseries to field. The symposium will focus on technologies shaping the landscape of our industry such as digitalisation, automation, robotics, big data and efficiency improvements of manually orientated operations in the field of silviculture.
To fully explore these interest fields, the symposium will be undertaken over three days. The first two days will be presentations at the Howick venue and the third day will be a field trip to local operations. The first day will solely focus on nurseries, the second day will focus on modern silviculture technologies and the third day will cover both modern nursery and silviculture operations.
The Modern Silviculture event has been hosted virtually by Nelson Mandela University since 2020. Its main focus has always been to encourage knowledge sharing about modern silviculture technologies in nurseries and field operations. For the first time, this event will be physical to encourage interaction and networking around this important topic. This year the event will be co-organised by Ellepot and Nelson Mandela University in a collaborative effort to comprehensively explore the opportunities and challenges within the silviculture value chain.
The event caters for nursery managers, horticulturists, foresters, contractors, forestry specialists, consultants, students, government policy makers and natural resource managers who are keen to learn and engage with leading experts in the field of silviculture innovation and development.
The symposium will be hosted in the Oasis Church Auditorium (address is 72 Main St). The venue is located in Howick which is a town just outside Pietermaritzburg in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands areas. The town is surrounded by plantation forests and both nursery and silviculture operations are in the vicinity.
The venue will host the conference and delegates will also get exposure to static exhibitions outside the conference venue. The venue has adequate parking and security will be available during the conference.
The field day on the 17th of October will comprise of a nursery visit to the Sappi Clan nursery and a visit to the local Mondi forest plantation for demonstration and exhibition of modern silviculture activities.