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EUFORGEN is pleased to announce the launch of its 2025 webinar series, bringing together leading experts to explore key issues in forest genetic resources (FGR). This year’s series will cover topics such as the impact of climate change on genetic diversity and forest resilience, and how genetic research can support sustainable forest management. Don’t miss the chance to engage with cutting-edge science and join the conversation!

The first webinar of the year will explore how natural selection shapes tree populations and how forest management can enhance their adaptive capacity to climate change. How do thinning and other interventions affect resilience to drought and environmental stress? Can forest management harness natural selection to strengthen long-term resilience? This online session is organised in collaboration with the Horizon Europe OptFORESTS project.

The speaker for this webinar is François Lefèvre, a geneticist at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE, France), based in the Mediterranean Forest Ecology research unit (URFM) in Avignon. In addition to his research, François serves as the president of the French Commission on Forest Genetic Resources (CRGF) and as the national coordinator for France in the EUFORGEN programme. With a background in quantitative and population genetics, François has led interdisciplinary research focusing on the impacts of forest management on both the short-term performance and long-term adaptive capacity of forests in the context of climate change, within a broader framework of social-ecological approaches. The presentation for this webinar will be co-authored with Victor Fririon.