8 July 2005

European forest research raises its profile

A new high-level organisation serving European forest research will be established on 4 September when European Forest Institute changes its legal status from that of Finnish association to one of international organisation established by European countries.

In the beginning of July Spain and Romania have ratified the Convention on European Forest Institute. Six other countries (Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Finland, Sweden and Germany) have ratified the Convention earlier. Two months after the deposit of the eighth instrument of the ratification, the Convention enters into force.

The current structure of EFI association will remain very much the same with an addition of a new organisational body, the Council. Representatives of ratifying countries will convene at Council every three years. The first Council meeting will be held in Helsinki, Finland on 5 September.

The new international status of EFI, endorsed by the European governments, will start a new era in pan-European research cooperation by bringing international forest research closer to the national agendas. With the new status it will be easier to pool resources for the topics important in forests and forestry.

"After a dense year that was marked by the active role of EFI in the NFRI [National Forest Research Institute] initiative as well as in the Forest-Based Technology Platform, and by the participation of EFI at two successful IP [integrated project] proposals under the 6th framework programme, the eight ratification came just at the right time. The next Annual EFI Conference that will be held in Barcelona in September will  indeed have the opportunity both to review the activities of EFI as it is, and to launch the new EFI on its future tracks", states Francois Houllier, Chairman of EFI Board.

EFI was established by 12 European organisations in 1993. Now the Institute has nearly 140 member organisations from 39 countries. The members of EFI are universities, research institutes, industry and non-governmental organisations. EFI conducts research in four Research Programmes (Forest Ecology and Management, Forest Products Markets and Socio-Economics, Policy Analysis and Forest Resources and Information). Its annual budget is 3 million euro and its international staff represented 15 nationalities last year.

Further information:

Risto Päivinen, Director, tel. +358 500 577 308

Pertti Harvola, Deputy Director General, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5732