Publication

The meeting objectives were twofold:

• Update the national coordinators on the progress in the implementation of the work programme and receive guidance for the completion of EUFORGEN Phase V.
• Discuss and decide on the future hosting of the EUFORGEN Programme.

The first objective was achieved by analysing the Programme’s accomplishments, the work of the Secretariat and the progress of working groups.

The second objective was reached by a two-step process. As first step, the current hosting situation was presented, the rationale for considering change and the requirements from the host were discussed and proposals from representatives of Bioversity International and the European Forestry Institute (EFI) were outlined. The second step comprised the identification of opportunities and risks with both hosts, an expression of hosting preference by each country member, and the decision making.

The Steering Committee decided that the EUFORGEN Secretariat, assisted by a task group of representatives from, Finland, France Germany and Slovenia will negotiate the transfer of EUFORGEN to the European Forest Institute by the end of 2017.