EFI News

The European Commission has appointed the European Forest Institute to conduct the Ex-Post Evaluation of the EU Forest Action Plan (FAP). The evaluation collects stakeholder views about the EU Forest Plan implementation in 2007-2011 with an online survey. The survey is open for contributions from the public until February 13.

The ERA-NET Scheme Enhancing Forest Research in the Mediterranean through improved coordination and integration (FORESTERRA) has been launched. EFI’s Mediterranean Regional Office – EFIMED will act as the secretariat supporting the coordinator, and will also be responsible for coordinating the development of the strategic plan. EFI’s Assistant Director of Policy Advice, Marc Palahí, said “FORESTERRA is the most strategic scientific programme on Mediterranean forests ever funded by the EU. It will allow the creation of a coherent Mediterranean forest research area”. EFIMED has recently opened a call for participation and contribution to the new research lines in Mediterranean forestry science.

The 'International Forestry and Global Issues' course taking place 16-20 April, 2012 in Nancy, France will address a wide range of forest issues and topics, which rank high on the international and national forest and environmental research and policy agendas. The course will offer PhD students and young scientists an excellent opportunity to interact with internationally renowned experts from various fields of forest science and policy. As the deadline for applications is 15 February, please send your application now.

Major forest infrastructure will be opened up to researchers from the public and private sectors across Europe thanks to the newly started project 'Designing trees for the Future' (Trees4Future). For the first time key infrastructures within the European forest based sector, including databases, state-of-the-art analytical tools and predictive models will be integrated and made available via a user-friendly, central access portal. European Forest Institute (EFI) is the Vice-Coordinator of the project.

The latest brochure in EFI’s Making a Difference: From Science to Policy series is now available! It focuses on EFI’s work coordinating the EUTR Support Study project, which investigated the most effective ways of meeting various requirements of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR).

EFI has released a new multimedia video on European forests. Called “European Forests: Central to the World We Live in”, it gives an overall picture of Europe’s most versatile ecological infrastructure, tracing a path from south to north and from west to east. As we tour around Europe, we ask why forests continue to be so important to each region, even in the 21st century.

The staff of EFI send best wishes for the New Year!

NB Forest, a website offering research-based information on Nordic and Baltic forests and forestry has launched. Be sure to add www.NBforest.info to your bookmarks! The portal is a joint project of the Nordic Forest Research Co-operation Committee (SNS) and the North European Regional Office of the European Forest Institute – EFINORD. The project aims to build a bridge between national research communication and the global research arena.

European Forest Institute (EFI) in cooperation with Alterra / Wageningen University and Research Centre has released a set of 1x1 km tree species maps showing the distribution of 20 tree species over Europe. Basic dendrometric data were gathered for 260,000 national forest inventory plot locations from 17 countries to compile these maps. Forest plot data collected in a European-wide network (ICP Level I) have been used to extend the available data for the remaining European countries. Furthermore, forest inventory statistics have been applied. These statistics are based on forest plot data that are aggregated over regions in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS).

The qualifications framework for sustainable forestry and lifelong learning project (SUFAREL) will focus, in the next three years, at improving higher professional education in forestry in Russia. Six Russian Universities as well as a number of universities from Western Europe will participate in the project, which had its kick-off meeting in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia on 14-16 November 2011.

The qualifications framework for sustainable forestry and lifelong learning project (SUFAREL) will focus, in the next three years, at improving higher professional education in forestry in Russia. Six Russian Universities as well as a number of universities from Western Europe will participate in the project, which had its kick-off meeting in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia on 14-16 November 2011.

Mr. Heiko Liedeker has been appointed as the Head of the FLEGT and REDD Unit at the European Forest Institute. Mr. Liedeker will start his service at EFI in January 2012, and will be based in the EFI Policy Advice Office in Barcelona, Spain. Mr. Liedeker has extensive experience in leading and facilitating international multi-cultural, interdisciplinary teams. He is currently working as executive director of Leading Standards GmbH, an expert organization which provides strategic advice and support to public agencies, private sector and civil society organizations on the development and implementation of social, environmental and economic sustainability standards.

By 2014, all shipments of wood products to the European Union from the Central African Republic will be required to carry a licence certifying their legal origin, after a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) was signed today between the EU and the Central African Republic. EFI’s EU FLEGT Facility provided technical support to the preparation, negotiation and implementation of the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in the Central African Republic.

On 24 November, EFI’s Mediterranean Regional Office - EFIMED received an important Spanish award in recognition of its outstanding merits in forest fire protection. Each year, the Spanish non-governmental organization "Asociación para la Promoción de Actividades Socioculturales (APAS)" gives the "El Batefuegos de Oro" (Golden Fire Swatter) award to distinguished persons or organizations with outstanding merits in forest fire protection.

The latest issue of EFI News looks at the EFI Annual Conference 2011 which gathered EFI Member Organisations and other key partners to Uppsala, Sweden for decision-making and networking. As an outcome of the conference, two issues emerged as a priority for EFI: shift towards more dialogue between EFI and its Membership Organisations and move forward with an international high-level discussion forum on forests, ThinkForest.

Building on the EU Forest Action Plan’s (FAP) mid-term evaluation, the ex-post evaluation will provide a review of the implementation, effectiveness and appropriateness of the EU Forest Action Plan. This evaluation should also analyze if the objectives of the FAP have been met, if it has led to any side effects, whether the instruments used are appropriate, relevant, effective and efficient and what was the role of the key actors.

The new European Forest Institute’s EU FLEGT Asia China Joint Project Office opened on 14 November, in Beijing, in a private ceremony. Performed by officials from the European Union’s Directorate General for Environment, and the Chinese State Forest Administration, representatives of the Renmin University, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, UK DFID and FLEGT Asia also attended the opening event.

The autumn 2011 issue of Public Service Review: European Union (issue 22) is now online. One of the articles was written by the EFI’s Assistant Director Gert-Jan Nabuurs and it features the way forward with European forest-related research.

The importance of demonstrating concrete examples to stakeholders and of listening to end-users were two of the practical themes to emerge from the second RoK-FOR conference on renewable energy and clustering held from 26-28 October in Zagreb, Croatia.

55 new papers on sustainability impact assessment have been published in EFI’s Technical Report series. The reports are deliverables and results from the EU FP6 Integrated Project EFORWOOD – Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment of the Forestry-Wood Chain. EFI was one of the 38 partners in the project, which ran from 2005 to 2010.