Mr. Patosaari joined the UN as Head of the Secretariat of the UN Forum on Forests in 2002. Prior to the UN, Mr. Patosaari worked on forest issues in numerous capacities including as Director of State Forestry and Forestry Research in the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Chief Coordinator of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of the Forests in Europe (MCPFE, Helsinki Process). He will be greatly missed and we wish him all the best in his retirement and future endeavors.
Following the retirement of Mr. Pekka Patosaari, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Mr. Sha Zukang designated Mr. Peter Csoka, as Officer-in-Charge of the UNFF Secretariat effective 1 January 2008. .
We would like to extend our most sincere apologies for not including our farewell to Mr. Jorge Illueca in our last newsletter. Mr. Illueca retired from the UN in September 2007 following a distinguished professional and academic career in environmental research and policy. Mr. Illueca joined the UNFF Secretariat on a secondment from UNEP in 2002. Prior to 2002, Mr. Illueca had served as Assistant Executive Director at the Division of Environmental Conventions in UNEP. We wish him all the best in his retirement and future endeavors.
Further related to staff matters at the UNFF Secretariat, the vacancy announcement for the position of Director of the UNFF Secretariat (D-2) was issued on the UN website on 18 Jan 2008. The deadline for applications is 18 March 2008. For more information on application procedures, please refer to the vacancy announcement.