EUFORGEN carries out its activities through:
- Discussion Platforms where national experts (one per EUFORGEN member country) meet, share, discuss and analyse relevant issues, share perspectives and identify needs;
- Working Groups, established directly by the Steering Committee where selected experts develop specific outputs
Discussion Platforms
Discussion Platforms address issues that need a pan-European perspective. Each EUFORGEN member country is invited to nominate a representative for each Platform. These Platforms are the instrument to analyse and discuss relevant issues, to maintain the overall knowledge and understanding of issues relevant to FGR in Europe and to build capacity among the members of the Platform. The Steering Committee, through a Task Force, gives a mandate indicating the tasks, expected outputs, and a defined timeframe within which each Platform will operate.
The Discussion Platforms are organized to optimise interactions among experts from all levels of experience, offering an opportunity for capacity building. Progress and findings will be reported to the Steering Committee and presented at relevant events. Discussion Platforms can make recommendations to the Steering Committee to establish Working Groups to address specific issues.
Working Groups
Once the need for a Working Group has been identified by the Steering Committee, the Steering Committee, through a Task Force, gives a mandate indicating the tasks, expected outputs, and a defined timeframe. The Secretariat, in consultation with the Task Force (whenever relevant), develops a tentative list of experts from the nominations by member countries. Experts are selected based on their experience and knowledge to match the tasks of a given Working Group. The geographical distribution of experts as well as their participation in previous Working Groups is also considered. The tentative list of selected experts is circulated to the Steering Committee for comments and final approval. The Secretariat then informs the selected experts, coordinates their work (including meeting arrangements), and provides technical and scientific inputs to the tasks of the Working Groups.
Each Working Group appoints a chair who leads the work and reports back to the Steering Committee. Draft outputs from the Working Groups may be circulated to nominated experts in the given field who did not participate in the Working Group, for their comments and review. Prior to publishing their final output, the Working Group chair presents their results to the Steering Committee and at relevant workshops.
Ongoing Working Groups:
1. Dynamic and static ex situ conservation
2. Evacuation of threatened GCU material and tracking of movements
