Exciting work ahead as National Coordinators collaborate on new topics at the 24th EUFORGEN Steering Committee Meeting
EUFORGEN’s Steering Committee gathered in Avignon, France, to launch ideas for Working Groups, share EU project updates, discuss FRM regulation impacts, and shape an upcoming evaluation of the Programme’s future direction.
Fledgling plans for three new Working Groups were initiated via a lively brainstorm of ideas at the 24th EUFORGEN Steering Committee meeting. 29 National Coordinators and observers, bringing expertise on forest genetic resources from 24 European countries, discussed elements to include in mandates for Working Groups on topics to be addressed during Phase VII. These include moving threatened Genetic Conservation Units (GCU) from in situ to ex situ and their complementarity, the potential impact(s) of the proposed Forest Reproductive Material (FRM) regulation on conservation and use of forest genetic resources (FGR), and how genetic aspects can be incorporated into Sustainable Forest Management practices.
Pan-European collaboration
The meeting, which took place in Avignon, France, on 21 – 23 April, was opened by representatives from the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, who praised the role of EUFORGEN as a catalyst for action in pan-European coordination for the conservation of FGR.
National Coordinators aptly demonstrated this broad diversity, sharing insights into the different ways in which their country uses or might plan to use the European Forest Genetic Resources Information System (EUFGIS), a tool described by the French Ministry as collective intelligence in action.
Important updates
A significant update to EUFGIS was completed last year as part of the EU-funded FORGENIUS project. National Coordinators heard about that and the many other noteworthy outputs of the project, which finished in December 2025, in one of several presentations from external speakers.
Others included the latest information from DG SANTE on the proposed EU regulation on FRM (currently at first reading), an introduction on the EU-funded MEDFORGEN project, which builds on EUFORGEN’s experience and expertise to strengthen forest genetic conservation in South and East Mediterranean, and a presentation on the EU-funded OptFORESTS project, which supports the conservation and sustainable use of FGR in the face of environmental and societal challenges.
Business matters for the Steering Committee included approving the 2025 technical and financial reports, Phase VII Communication Strategy, and discussing the implementation plan for this year’s activities.
Going forward
Looking ahead, 2026 will see the start of a major evaluation of the EUFORGEN Programme, to be undertaken by an external consultancy. The Evaluators gave a presentation about their proposed methodology and timeline, which will be the first major evaluation of the Programme since 2017, and which aims to identify areas of strength and aspects for improvement to take the Programme effectively into the future.
In other news, a concept note for developing a methodology to improve the identification of conservation gaps in the pan-European core network of Genetic Conservation Units (GCU) is almost finalised. A dedicated Task Force has been working on the topic for the past months and indicates that a future project proposal could uptake the concept note and work towards a revised methodological framework, with case studies, recommendations, integration with EUFGIS and consider the effort and resources needed to achieve long-term technical objectives.
Workshop and external initiatives
As well as the three brainstorming sessions for new WG topics, opportunities for interaction included a workshop on developing key messages for three EUFORGEN target audiences, identified in its new Communication Strategy.
Meeting participants also shared ideas on what advice they might give to the Norwegian government via the Norwegian National Coordinator on accepting forestry seeds for storage at the Svalbard Global Vault.
Finally, participants learnt about the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region project on forest genetic monitoring, Diverse Gene Watch.
Field trip highlight
One of the highlights of the meeting came on the final day with a field trip to the spectacular Mount Ventoux. An almost bare mountain at the turn of the last century, reforesting efforts and natural regeneration mean that today the mountain boasts beautiful tree cover spanning rich ecological diversity, from Mediterranean to Alpine climate and land use structured along altitudinal and longitudinal gradients. Meeting participants were taken on a guided walking tour through the forest, noting the richness of its species diversity.
Organisation
The 24th EUFORGEN Steering Committee meeting was organised by a team from the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), led by the National Coordinator for France, François Lefèvre. After 20 years of service as National Coordinator, Dr. Lefèvre announced his decision to step down from the role following this meeting. His successor is Ivan Scotti, also of INRAE, who attended the meeting as observer. Dr. Scotti is Research Director at the Institute and has recently coordinated the FORGENIUS project.
The photographs featured in the gallery were taken by Sarah Adams, Communications Manager at the EUFORGEN Secretariat.
