Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe


The Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe is a pan-European ministerial level voluntary political process for the promotion of sustainable management of European forests.
Through this process, guidelines, Criteria & Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management and other instruments for the promotion of sustainable forest management are developed.
The process is based on the Ministerial Conferences that have been convened with an interval of 3 to 5 years. These Conferences represent the highest decision-making body of the process, as well as its most important event. At Ministerial Conferences, the ministers responsible for forests in Europe take decisions on issues of highest political and social relevance regarding forests and forestry through decisions and resolutions. Between ministerial conferences, the Expert Level Meeting is a decision-making body of FOREST EUROPE. On top of that, ad hoc Round Table Meetings, Working Groups, Seminars and Workshops are being established to work on specific subjects of scientific, technical or political nature.
FOREST EUROPE also has its supportive structures, namely the General Coordinating Committee that coordinates the FOREST EUROPE work and advises the Liaison Unit on implementation of FOREST EUROPE decisions and on strategic developments. The Liaison Unit is the support office of the process. It organises and carries out all FOREST EUROPE meetings and prepares reports and necessary documentation for the meetings. The Liaison Unit is located in the country which holds the chairmanship of FOREST EUROPE – currently in Zvolen, Slovakia, under the name of Liaison Unit Bratislava.

Ministerial Conferences and commitments

From 1990, seven Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe have taken place. The next Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place in Bratislava in October 2020. At every Conference, a joint political declaration is agreed and different resolutions are adopted, in order to develop common strategies for its 46 signatory countries and the European Union on how to protect and sustainably manage forests.

Strasbourg (1990)

In the Oslo Ministerial Conference ministers adopted a decision and agreed on a mandate to launch negotiations on a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe.
Two FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conferences were held in Madrid in October 2015: the 7th Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, and a FOREST EUROPE Extraordinary Ministerial Conference that received the results of the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe. The Conferences were held back-to-back, on the following dates: 20–21 October the 7th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference, and 21 October for the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference.

Signatories

The FOREST EUROPE signatory countries commit themselves to implement at national level the resolutions adopted during the Ministerial Conferences.
Between two Ministerial Conferences, delegates from the different signatory countries take part in different meetings, where the way to put into practice the agreements reached during the Conferences is planned and coordinated.
All the signatory countries inform the Liaison Unit about their implementation of the resolutions.
The number of signatories has increased over the years, and now account for 46 European countries, as well as the European Union: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Observers

Non-European countries and different kind of international organizations take also part in the FOREST EUROPE process as observers.
;Countries
At the present time, the number of FOREST EUROPE observer countries totals 14 non-European countries, Canada, USA, India, China, Japan and Morocco among others. This is the list of observer countries at present: Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Ghana, India, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States.
;Organisations
Intergovernmental organizations such as the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Development Programme the United Nations Forum on Forests, and the World Bank are among the observer organizations of the FOREST EUROPE process.
Stakeholders organizations are also represented among the observers, having the opportunity to defend their positions and express their concerns during the different meetings. The stakeholder organizations could be classified into the six following major groups:
  1. Youth and students organizations
  2. Forest owners, both public and private, organizations
  3. Forest and forest related industry
  4. Social ONGs
  5. Scientific organizations
  6. Environmental NGOs
As of the beginning of 2015, FOREST EUROPE observers included:
Besides the Ministerial Conferences themselves, the FOREST EUROPE process has a more elaborated structure and different working modalities.

Ministerial conferences

Ministerial Conferences are the core of the FOREST EUROPE process. At these meetings, the ministers in charge of forest related issues in the pan-European region commit themselves and endorse decisions on forests a forestry related issues. Between Ministerial Conferences the FOREST EUROPE process works through different follow up mechanisms.

Expert Level Meetings

The Expert Level Meeting is the FOREST EUROPE decision-making body between the Ministerial Conferences. Delegates from the signatory countries, the observer countries and observer organizations of the FOREST EUROPE process gather in these Expert Level Meetings to take decisions on the implementation of the resolutions and commitments taken during the Ministerial Conferences, as well as the preparations of upcoming Conferences. The ELM meets once or twice a year depending on its needs.

Round Table Meetings

The Round Table Meetings are a platform for information and opinion exchange. The meetings provide guidance on the implementation of the FOREST EUROPE decisions and resolutions, as well as the strategic development of the process.

Working groups, seminars and workshops

FOREST EUROPE working groups, seminars and workshops are organized to deal with and debate about specific scientific, technical or political topics related t forests. FOREST EUROPE delegates, as well as nominated experts take part in these meetings, the outcomes of which are always presented to the subsequent Expert Level Meeting.

General Coordinating Committee

The General Coordinating Committee coordinates the work of FOREST EUROPE. It is currently composed of representatives from 5 of the FOREST EUROPE signatory countries, but the number of countries represented in the GCC has changed over time. The GCC is also the financing body of the FOREST EUROPE process and the Liaison Unit and its activities. It is also in charge of advising the Liaison Unit about the implementation of FOREST EUROPE decisions and strategic developments.
The first two Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe were jointly organized by France and Finland and then Finland and Portugal, on their own initiative. At the second Ministerial Conference, held in Helsinki, the participants recognized the continuity and guiding of the follow-up of the process in hands of a co-chairmanship and placed a structure of cooperation in the form of the GCC.
The committee, on a voluntary basis and regionally balanced, was first constituted by three countries and broadened to five countries afterwards. The following countries have been a member of the GCC since the beginning of the Ministerial Conference process: France, Finland, Portugal, Austria, Poland, Norway, Spain, Slovak Republic, Germany, Turkey and, since the 7th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference.
In accordance with the established practice of FOREST EUROPE, one of the countries represented in the GCC is always the host country of the previous Ministerial Conference, other is the country which holds the chairmanship of the process and will convene the next Ministerial Conference, and the other three are countries which will succeed in the line of chairing FOREST EUROPE. At present, the GCC is constituted by Spain, Slovak Republic, Turkey, Germany and Sweden, which replaced Norway in the GCC at the 7th FOREST EUROPE Miniterial Conference. The chairmanship of the process was taken over from Spain at the Madrid conference by the Slovak Republic, which will host the next FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference. In accordance with the established practice of FOREST EUROPE, the General Coordinating Committee consists of the country which holds the chairmanship of the process and will convene the next Ministerial Conference, the country which organised the previous Ministerial Conference and three more countries which will succeed in the line of chairing FOREST EUROPE.

Liaison Unit

The Liaison Unit is the support office of the FOREST EUROPE process. It organises and carries out all FOREST EUROPE meetings and prepares the reports and all the necessary documentation for the meetings.
The Liaison Unit is located in the country which holds the chairmanship of FOREST EUROPE – currently in Zvolen, Slovakia, under the name of Liaison Unit Bratislava.