The Liaison Unit Warsaw of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) organized the annual Expert Level meeting in Warsaw, Poland on 14-15 October 2004. The meeting reviewed the implementation of the new MCPFE Work Programme adopted in October 2003 as a follow-up to the Resolutions made at the Vienna Ministerial Conference in April 2003. Representatives from 30 European countries and the European Commission, 17 observer organizations and one observer country (Canada) also discussed future MCPFE activities.
IPGRI reported recent EUFORGEN outputs and the Programme’s new objectives for Phase III (2005-2009) adopted by the EUFORGEN Steering Committee in May 2004. IPGRI is also involved in two other MCPFE related activities, namely development of an international capacity building programme on FGR in collaboration with Austria and a workshop on the role of forest genetic diversity in improving the adaptability of forests to climate change and maintaining forest productivity under changing environmental conditions. The workshop will be organized in collaboration with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) during spring 2006 and aims to provide policy recommendations for the MCPFE process and practical recommendations for sustainable forest management.
More information on the MCPFE process can be found at www.mcpfe.org . The next Expert Level meeting will be organized in Warsaw on 12-13 September 2005