International Congress on Planted Forests
In the past decade, EFIATLANTIC and EFIPLANT have played a unique role in improving the science to policy interface at a global level in close association with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In 2013, EFIATLANTIC and FAO jointly organised the 3rd International Congress on Planted Forests (ICPF) in Europe as a follow up to initial conferences on planted forests in Chile in 1999 and in New Zealand in 2003.
The congress included plenary sessions in Lisbon and parallel scientific workshops in Bordeaux, Dublin and Porto in close partnership with IEFC and USSE.
The congress’s final resolution emphasised the vulnerability of planted forests to global changes, their central role in combating climate change and providing other ecosystem services, and the need to develop science-based knowledge for improving their resilience, management and governance.
This led to the launching of IUFRO Task Force on “Sustainable Planted Forests for a Greener Future” in 2015, which was coordinated by EFIATLANTIC. And more recently to the 4th ICPF in Beijing in October 2018 hosted and jointly organised by FAO, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) of China, IUFRO and CAF (Chinese Academy of Forestry), with active involvement of EFIPLANT and participation of 700 people from 70 countries.
The congress highlighted the growing importance of planted forests for both conservation and production purposes in a changing environment, and the need to balance their economic, social and environmental benefits in the context of broader landscape perspective and integrated bioeconomy systems.
Written by Jean-Michel Carnus (New Zealand Institute of Forestry) and edited by Stephanie Hayes (Hayes4Com)
