PORTEFEUILLE

Switzerland's forests cover a third of the country, yet the data needed to manage them optimally is largely missing. Foresta aims to close this gap by providing tree-level forest inventories extracted from LiDAR using AI. We turn point clouds from different LiDAR sensors into inventories that capture attributes such as position, species, diameter, structure and vitality of individual trees, at a fraction of the cost of conventional surveys, and we integrate them into a dedicated forest management platform. With Foresta, forest managers make better decisions, leading to greater climate resilience and ecosystem services, more efficient subsidy allocation, reduced operational deficits in forestry, and greater use of wood as a renewable resource.

The project builds on an advanced prototype developed since January 2026 with previous funding, together with a running pilot with the Canton of Ticino, which has supplied LiDAR and field validation data. The next step is to deliver three MVP models and validate them on the Ticino data. Research collaborations with BFH HAFL, further cantons and industry partners are also planned, in order to develop the technology further, gather customer feedback and establish partnerships.