European Forest Institute – Wikipedia

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For homonymous articles, see EFI.

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L’ European Forest Institute or European Institute of Cultivated Forest (in Finnish: European Institute of Forestry , in English : European Forest Institute or EFI) is an international organization whose headquarters are located in Joensuu in Finland, of a Franco-Finlandian initiative and created in 1992 (and then immediately open to all European countries).

Created as NGO, the Institute was recognized as an international organization in 2005. The entity which was originally exclusively centered on scientific and research coordination issues has evolved into politicizing : Governments are more directly active, each states now being “members of law” of a higher council (generally called Council ). The EFI therefore expanded its objectives and methods of action.

France although at the origin of the EFI with Finland only became a member of the EFI only from the “Due to juridico-linguistic difficulties, now resolved” According to J. Andrieu et al. (two thousand and thirteen) [ first ] .

EFI has scientific council (scientific advisory board) and a network of forest management experts, and produces for policies and managers of guidance notes ( policy briefs ), some of which are published in a collection relating to the teachings of science on a given subject, What science can tell us? (That science can tell us ) [ 2 ] , [ 3 ] , [ 4 ] .

The purpose of this institute was to identify and disseminate scientific and technical information concerning the environmental, logistical, economic and social aspects of forestry, on a European scale, in order to fuel decision -making in the field of forest policy. Its objectives have expanded with the integration of states and the creation of a permanent conference. The EFI is used in particular-within the European technological platform Forest-Bois-Papier to offer subjects to be included in the context of European Research and Development framework programs [ first ] . EFI also directs research via two European research networks (Eranets) :

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  1. Foresterra (Risk management, fire in particular, and ecosystem services in the Mediterranean forest)
  2. Sumforest , which aims at “Reasoning sustainable forest management in a context that is both changing and multifunctional”

Finally, the EFI feeds prospective reflection on the future of forests and is involved in discussions concerning European or international instruments for the legal supervision of forestry, via the Intergovernmental negotiation committee for a legally binding instrument on forests in Europe , in connection with the United Nations Forum on Forests [ first ] .

This European Forest Institute was created as part of a desire to “Pan -ier forest construction” In progress since the 1980s at least, in connection with ministerial conferences for forest protection in Europe, a process resulting from a Franco-Finlandian initiative [ first ] .

The approach was launched by a first ministerial conference organized by the French government in Strasbourg in 1990, while the first Rio earth summit was prepared ( ), and that foresters faced an increasing demand for social and environmental guarantees in their management [ first ] . Each European country was invited to associate with it, via a series of student conferences and issuing resolutions, conferences held in Helsinki in 1993), in Lisbon in 1998), in Vienna in 2003), in Warsaw in 2007 and in Oslo in 2011 to be renamed « Forest Europe » [ first ] .

According to the sixth resolution of the Strasbourg conference “States are mutually committed to better combining research efforts at the international level on the management of forest ecosystems and, for this, to set up a European network for research on forest ecosystems” , what resulted in the Helsinki ministerial conference of 1993 by the creation of a European network on the proposal of Finland: an NGO bringing together establishments of a scientific, educational, industrial or commercial nature of all European countries to collect and enhance knowledge and expertise in the forestry field and better associate scientists with dialogue on the forest [ first ] .

Little by little the EFI which had as members only organizations of European countries (“associate members”) opened up to “affiliated members” (non-European). They constitute “the conference” and the states are now there “Law members” of higher council (council) . France thus participates in the EFI via its scientific and technical representation, but also via the government channel [ first ] .

In 2005 the NGO was recognized as an international organization [ first ] .

France and Finland were motor in the creation of the EFI, then during the 1990s and 2000s to highlight a list of so -called good management principles and criteria called “sustainable management”, which will be reappropriated by the process PEFC certification, in opposition to the FSC, label which preceded it but which attacked more importance to social and ecological criteria and verifiability, and which made all its criteria of application compulsory [ first ] .

The French correspondent of the EFI was first a public interest group: the GIP ECOFOR (for “forest ecosystems”), created that same year 1993 to bring together several research entities, development, teaching, evaluation and administrations loaded forest management, and associate member of the EFI since its inception. Other entities have been added to it, including AgroParistech, the FCBA Technological Institute, the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), the National Institute for Research in Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture (IRSTEA , ex-which [ first ] ).
Thus 20 years after the constitution of the EFI, six of its 129 associate members were large French entities and three French people had already been members of the EFI board of directors (two of whom were even president) [ first ]

  • Yves Birot (president from 1998 to 2001, and also in France president of the deliberative body of the GIP ECOFOR)
  • François Houllier (president from 2004 to 2006, and also in France president of the deliberative body of the GIP ECOFOR)
  • Jean-Marc Guehl (member of « Board » From 2010 and also in France president of the deliberative body of the GIP ECOFOR)

There are also French people among the members of the EFI Scientific Council (Daniel Guinard, Gérard Buttoud, Antoine Kremer, Jean-Luc Peyro for example for the first 20 years of existence of the EFI) [ first ]

France has in this context welcomed the European Forest Observatory (EEF) in Nancy, with INRA and the help of the Urban Community of Grand Nancy, the Lorraine Region and the Ministry of Agriculture and the forest [ first ] .

To adapt to the variety of European forest ecosystems and their challenges, the EFI has subdivided into six regional offices, which are in particular [ first ] :

  1. Efimed , based in Barcelona, ​​dedicated to the Mediterranean forest;
  2. Efiatlantic , based in Bordeaux, dedicated to cultivated forests of the Atlantic Arc;
  3. efficient , dedicated to the center-European forests of the NFZ triangle (located between Nancy, Friborg-en-Brisgau (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland).

There are many of them but have concerned in particular

  • The effects of climate change and other risks (fire, storm) on the forest [ first ]
  • Payment of ecosystem services [ first ] ,
  • Forest governance [ first ]
  • Wood trade [ first ]

Fight against deforestation and illegal cuts [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Europe imports significant quantities of illegal wood from various countries. She seeks to oppose this phenomenon under the aegis of the UN via the process « EU-FLEGT Facility » . It also seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and major degradations of peat or forest carbon wells due to deforestation, certain forest fires and the degradation of tropical and equatorial forests via the process « EU-REDD Facility » [ first ] .

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s and t Andrieu J. Guehl J.M & Peyron J.L (2013) The European Forest Institute and French forest policy , French forest review (fr) .
  2. ↑ Birot (Y.) (ed.). Living with Wildfires : What Science Can Tell Us? A contribution to the Science Policy Dialogue. — EFI discussion paper n O 15, 2009 (in)
  3. ↑ Birot Y, Gracia C, Palahi M (2011). Water for forests and men in the Mediterranean region: a balance to find .|What Science Can Tell Us 2.|European Forest Institute
  4. ↑ Gardiner B., Schuck A, Schelhaas M-J, Oraio C, Blennow K, Nicoll B (2013) Living with Storm Damage to Forests . What Science Can Tell Us 3, 2013. — European Forest Institute (in)

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