One EFI – working together for a sustainable future

140 EFI colleagues converged in Helsinki, Finland for EFI Week 2026, demonstrating the breadth, diversity, and wide range of talent from across the organisation. 

EFI Week brings together colleagues from across EFI to strengthen shared understanding, collaboration, and organisational learning. 

Through a mix of interactive discussions, team exchanges, workshops, and reflection sessions, the week focuses on EFI’s role, impact, expertise, and ways of working together across teams, units, and offices.

Dedicated sessions were framed by the EFI Strategy 2040 whose overarching aim is to deepen understanding of forests, support informed and forward-looking decision-making, and help build trust, inclusiveness, and shared ownership of knowledge.

The week was intense and productive, with concrete plans formed for immediate future activities, while many seeds were sown for longer-term fruition, from cross-unit collaboration to improved stakeholder connection and institution-wide improvement of practices and processes.

Staff enjoyed an excursion into the forest or onto the sea on the final day, which provided important space for informal exchange, reflection, and shared experience. 

The week may have ended, and very successfully, but the learning, collaboration and strengthened relationships will endure as staff return to their posts and the work continues to connect forest-related knowledge with societal needs for a more sustainable future.