Terra Labs and the Future of Precision Forestry
After reading the news about Terra Labs’ collaboration with Mellanskog, I became curious about the company behind the technology. I recently had the opportunity to speak with a person from Terra Labs, gaining insight into how they are working to shape the future of forestry. While the Mellanskog partnership is an important step in Sweden’s digital forestry journey, the main story lies in the technology itself and in Terra Labs’ broader role as an enabler of precision forestry.
Technology at the Core
Terra Labs describes itself as neither a software nor a data company, but as an AI company. Data is their foundation, but artificial intelligence is what makes their solutions possible. By combining laser scanning, satellite imagery, and high-resolution commercial datasets, the company has built deep learning models capable of interpreting and analyzing forest structures with a level of detail that was out of reach only a few years ago.
The outcome is forestry data with what the company calls human-level precision. This is not only a claim, partners have validated the results through detailed field studies and confirm higher accuracy and less variation compared to traditional methods of data collection. The system also estimates its own error margins and highlights stands that require on-site inspection.
Cracking the Stand Delineation Challenge
Stand delineation - the division of forests into meaningful management units - has long been one of the toughest challenges in creating forest management plans based purely on remote sensing data. Attempts to automate the process have often fallen short. Terra Labs’ platform now offer a solution, delivering consistent results that scale across large geographies.
Equally important, the system allows flexibility. If a user is unsatisfied with an automatically generated delineation, they can prompt the system to adjust it according to their needs.
Enabling Precision Forestry
Precision forestry is about more than just mapping trees. It is about providing actionable insights at the right scale - whether that means identifying individual trees in need of attention, planning thinning operations, or tracking regeneration.
With access to Terra Labs’ data, owners and managers can:
- Access continuously updated forest inventories
- Monitor growth and health development in near real-time
- Identify individual trees when paired with high-resolution data
- Receive automated, data-driven management recommendations
The result is a shift from reactive practices to more proactive forestry, where decisions are guided by up-to-date intelligence tailored to each stand, or even each tree.
Beyond Sweden
Although the current focus is on Swedish forests, Terra Labs’ ambitions are broader. The technology is designed to scale, and the company sees international potential as satellite resolution improves and costs decline. The stated goal is to become a standard provider of forest intelligence globally.
Looking Forward
Terra Labs is also exploring applications outside forestry, though the immediate opportunity in this sector is significant on its own. By lowering costs, improving accuracy, and automating manual processes, the company positions itself as an enabler of change.
The recent partnership is one proof point, but it is only part of a bigger picture, one where data and technology help bring clarity to complexity.
P.S. Stay tuned for an in-depth exploration of my perspective on precision forestry, coming soon.