Turkey ratified the EFI Convention on 3 October, thus being the 12th ratifying country of the Convention. The Convention enters into force in Turkey 60 days after the ratification date. The ratifying countries are now: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey.
The ratifying countries meet every three years in EFI Council. The next Council meeting is scheduled for 2008 and it will be held in Spain. At this meeting, also the chairmanship of the Council shifts from Finland to Spain.
EFI's mission is to carry out research of forests, forestry and forest products at the pan-European level, and disseminate the results of this research to all interested parties, especially in the area of policy formulation and implementation. EFI carries out research in four research programmes based at the headquarters in Joensuu, Finland, and seven Project Centres co-ordinated by EFI members in different parts of Europe.
Spain and Catalonia become new donors of EFI
The EFI Annual Conference in Netherlands on 14 September supported the establishment of the first Regional Office of EFI in Barcelona, Spain, later this year.
This is a clear signal from EFI Member countries to further develop EFI and strengthen European forest research. ‘Spain and Catalonia have taken the first step to support forest research which both at regional and pan-European levels. We believe this development will spread also to other parts of Europe’, commented Director of EFI, Risto Päivinen. ’At the same time, this does not mean any reduction of activities at the EFI Headquarters. In fact, this means more work and new financial resources also for the EFI as a whole.’
The authorities and associate members of EFI will benefit from having Regional Offices by getting more visibility to their regional forest issues in the European context. For EFI these offices bring more funding and secure EFI network.
The Regional offices are an integral and permanent parts of EFI organisation. Their activities will be in line with EFI strategies and monitored similarly to EFI research programmes. While they bring in a new element to the organisation, the seven Project Centres, that are thematic networks of EFI across Europe , will continue their activities as before.
EFI is an international organisation established by a convention ratified by 11 European countries. Up until now, one third (1 million euro) of the funding has been received from the Government of Finland, while the other two-thirds have been project funding from various funding sources. Spain, being one of the ratifying countries, supports the activities of EFI with 200 000 euro and Catalonia provides funding of 125 000 euro annually.