FOREST EUROPE

The Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE, synonym of the Helsinki Process, and, from November 2009, of FOREST 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 (SFM) 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 (ELM) 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 (GCC) 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.

From 1990, seven (plus one extraordinary) Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe have taken place. 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.

In the Oslo Ministerial Conference (the latest to date) ministers adopted a decision (the so-called Oslo Ministerial Decision: European Forests 2020) and agreed on a mandate to launch negotiations on a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe.

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Wikipedia