This issue of Revista Opiniões Florestal brings a real and relevant agenda for the national forestry business. The modernization of the Brazilian forest system is debated and explored in any established environment of the sector, be it academic, entrepreneurial, business, and so on. The advances achieved in mechanization and modernization of forestry activities in recent decades were undeniable, but there are still areas and operations that lack a more forceful movement in this direction.

As I reflect on this reality, I inevitably go back nine years to when I entered the flower industry . A mechanical engineer trained and graduated from the steel sector, from where many of the technologies, processes and equipment are brought ready and formatted from abroad, I came across a thriving sector whose evolution and current level were supported by initiatives and projects often developed locally. , by representatives of the national forestry sphere.

As an example, but not limited to them, the progress in genetic improvement and variability that today supplies the productivity and health of our forest production comes from studies and efforts carried out by local agents of the forestry sector (Example: clone AEC 0043 , first commercial clone from Corymbia do Brasil).

The mechanization and modernization of forestry and harvesting activities as we know them today was only possible thanks to actions and adaptations carried out by players also from the Brazilian forest sector (Example: forest delimbing, with real gains in productivity and safety). The world vanguard in high productivity and yield technologies for converting wood into charcoal only happened because we have an innovative vocation and the imperative need to follow this path, since there is no charcoal production in the world that compares to the Brazilian one (Example: FAP 2000 oven, first and largest rectangular flat cup oven in the world).

In view of this reflection and observation, it is clear that the key to the transformative potential needed to close the gaps in modernization and mechanization still present in the Brazilian forest system lies in the main actors in this same sector. And what would be the key to unlocking all this transformative potential? Well, there are several possibilities, but I dare to list three keys in which I particularly see great potential:

1. Multilateral action between representatives of the forest sector (academy, producers, suppliers), in a joint effort to diagnose common needs, which carry with them a greater potential for impact, as well as to direct actions and resources that propose to solve these needs identified;

2. Open Innovation Initiatives that expose technological vacuums, not only for agents who already navigate the forest environment routinely, but also for individuals and external organizations, who bring with them not only a lot of technology, but also a new vision of the problem, completely free. of bias. We are already seeing movements in this direction (Example: Forest Insight from the Forestry Research Society, Radar from the Forest Research and Studies Institute, etc. , which, over time, will certainly trigger the flow of many transformative solutions for the forest industry;

3. Internal programs that encourage, invest, reward and unlock the innovative potential that exists within each organization or institution. encounter them and, precisely because of this, they carry with them all the necessary tools to address a practical and viable solution. As the poet would say, the best problems to be solved are the usual problems!

Certainly, the three possibilities mentioned above, together with other actions that also aim to meet the same objective, carry enough energy to remove inertia and move the forces necessary to solve any problem or gap that exists in our forests.

In conclusion, I consider and propose to all of you, dear readers, a real call to action. As a sector, how are we finding consensus and channeling efforts and resources into initiatives that will somehow raise the level of modernization and, consequently, the level of competitiveness and sustainability of the forest industry as a whole? As an organization, how open are we to modern, often unorthodox, external currents of innovation that carry great transformative potential? As individuals, how willing are we to take on our role as a protagonist of change and carry the key that will open and completely change the horizons of modernization of the Brazilian forest industry in the coming years?

Really, the key is in our hands!