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european forest genetic resources programme

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National Coordinators and Steering Committee

When joining EUFORGEN, each country is requested to nominate a National Coordinator to act as the official contact person between Bioversity International and the participating country for all matters relating to the Programme. The role of the National Coordinators is to:

1. Participate in the Steering Committee meetings and other activities;
2. Promote EUFORGEN and its activities at national level;
3. Liaise between the Secretariat and relevant ministries and agencies in a country regarding its membership and other issues;
4. Ensure that necessary resources are channelled to the Programme;
5. Liaise between the Secretariat and national institutions involved in the EUFORGEN activities;
6. Nominate experts on thematic areas relevant for EUFORGEN and maintain regular contacts with them; and
7. Assist the experts and the national institutes in contributing to the EUFORGEN activities, as needed.

The Steering Committee is composed of National Coordinators from all member countries and it has the overall responsibility of the Programme. The Steering Committee will:

1. Review the progress made and decide upon future activities of the Programme;
2. Approve the budget of the Programme;
3. Review technical and audited financial reports prepared by the Secretariat;
4. Develop an overall work plan for Phase IV;
5. Identify themes for the workshops to be held during Phase IV;
6. Agree on the establishment of working groups and clearly define their tasks, deadlines and expected outputs;
7. Agree on principles for selecting and inviting individual experts to participate in the working groups and the workshops;
8. Review the outputs of the working groups and take further action;
9. Provide inputs related to forest genetic resources to relevant European (e.g. the MCPFE process and the European Union) and global processes (e.g. development of the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources (SoW-FGR) report), as requested;
10. Discuss emerging issues relevant to EUFORGEN and the conservation and use of forest genetic resources in Europe.

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EUFORGEN Secretariat

The Secretariat manages the Programme and coordinates its activities. The role of the Secretariat is to:

1. Ensure that the implementation of the Programme and its activities are in accordance with the mandate given by the MCPFE process and the Steering Committee;
2. Provide information relevant to the Steering Committee meetings well in advance;
3. Be responsible for the financial management of the Programme;
4. Liaise between the Steering Committee and the working groups;
5. Provide scientific and technical inputs to the working groups and coordinate their work;
6. Organize meetings and workshops in collaboration with local hosts;
7. Prepare reports and other publications;
8. Maintain the EUFORGEN website and the EUFGIS Portal;
9. Disseminate other relevant information;
10. Represent EUFORGEN and advocate conservation and appropriate use of forest genetic resources in relevant European (e.g. the MCPFE process and the European Union) and global processes (e.g. development of the SoW-FGR report);
11. Facilitate collaboration with relevant stakeholders and the expansion of the Programme to obtain new member countries.

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EUFORGEN activities

The activities are carried out through working groups and workshops. The working groups, consisting of approximately ten persons, focus on specific tasks. They are established by the Steering Committee, which also defines the tasks, deadlines and expected outputs for each working group. The working groups report their findings to the Steering Committee for further action. In addition, the findings are discussed during workshops through which a broader group of stakeholders contributes to the activities.

The activities also include further development of the EUFGIS information system. The Secretariat maintains the EUFGIS Portal and a network of National Focal Points provides updated data on the dynamic gene conservation units of forest trees in different countries.

In June 2009, the Steering Committee identified several areas of work (see the table below) for Phase IV. The working groups will carry out specific tasks within these broader areas of work. The Steering Committee is expected to develop a more detailed work plan with specific tasks and deadlines in early 2010.

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