ETFRN and EC News
ETFRN NEWS
The ETFRN directory of European Research Institutions in the field of Tropical Subtropical and Mediterranean Forests is due to be updated this year. If your organisation is not yet included, and would like to be, please contact, preferably by E-mail, the ETFRN Coordination Unit, etfrn@etfrn.org, for an entry form. Otherwise, please fax the ETFRN Coordination Unit at + 31 317 412099.
If in the past you have supplied information for an entry into this directory, kindly review, and if necessary update your entry. You will have received a request to do so from the ETFRN national focal point in your country (see back page for addresses). Please note that if the Coordination Unit does not hear from you, either through your national node, or directly, your entry will be deleted.
The directory is also available on the ETFRN homepage,
http://www.etfrn.org/etfrn/etfrn-home.html, in the form of a searchable database. In the Internet entry, hypertext links have been made to E-mail and homepage, if available.
The ETFRN website: http://www.etfrn.org will be restyled in the course of the next few months. The aim is to make the site more accessible and user friendly. Frames will disappear, and icons will be replaced by text buttons. Suggestions and comments for further improvements are welcome!
Other networking activities
ETFRN has signed a memorandum of understanding with SECID, the South-East Consortium for International Development based in Washington DC, USA, with the intention to explore opportunities for joint action together with ETFRN or its member organisations. ETFRN members may request further information from the Coordination Unit.
Upon request from the Centre for Rural Development and Training of the University of Wolverhampton, UK, the Coordination Unit organised meetings with key persons of different institutes in Wageningen for representatives of the Bolivian Centro de Investigacion Agricola Tropical (CIAT). The Coordination Unit organised a similar visit for Ivar Jorgensen, who acts as the ETFRN focal point in Norway, and Elisabeth de Jong, both from Noragric.
The ETFRN Coordinator participated in the International Consultation on Research and Information Systems for Forestry (ICRIS), an IFF intersessional meeting organised by the Governments of Austria and Indonesia, with assistance from CIFOR, FAO and IUFRO.
EC NEWS
THE EU TROPICAL FORESTRY SOURCEBOOK
Published by the Overseas Development Institute in collaboration with the European Commission, this book provides an overview of the ways in which the European Union offers support to tropical forests through aid and research. The book has been written with several audiences in mind. For those in partner developing countries, and for other non-EU donors, it offers insights into current EU priorities and activities in the tropical forestry sector. The book is also written for those within the EU itself who are already working towards greater complementarity, coordination and coherence in the forestry sector, but also the more general reader.
Please see p24 for publication announcement and ordering details.
KEY FINDINGS:
- Six of the nine largest bilateral funders of tropical forestry, including the Commission, are found within the European Union. Since the funding of good forestry projects is expensive, it is clear that tropical forests rely greatly on continued European support.
- Many European donors bring strong comparative advantages to the management of tropical forests - long-standing colonial experience, or domestic experience over many centuries of managing conflicting forest demands in a densely-settled rural landscape.
- The two most successful kinds of tropical forestry funding, from the experience of the Commission and Member States, are:
- support for policy and institutional initiatives at national and international levels;
- field projects which focus on better institutional arrangements for the relationship between forest sustainability and local livelihoods.
The most progress has been seen where donors make an explicit commitment to tropical forest management issues. General rural development projects have not been able to deliver many benefits for forests.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TROPICAL FORESTS: THE MAIN ISSUES TO WHICH EUROPE'S DONORS ARE RESPONDING:
Priorities for the millions of people directly dependent on tropical forests:
- food security: forest foods complement carbohydrate-based farm diets by providing essential protein, vitamins and minerals; provide a fall-back in seasonal food shortages and emergencies; plant nutrient transfer from forest to farm via animal manure, leaf-mulch and land-fallowing systems.
- water security: watershed protection and sustainable water supplies
Priorities for those living in the temperate regions of the world:
- carbon sequestration
- biodiversity and habitat conservation
- products from sustainably managed forests
For more information, contact:
Mr Uwe Werblow , Head of Unit A/1( Environment, Rural Development, Food Security) DGVIII , or
Ms Marjukka Mähönen, Tropical forest expert, A/1, DGVIII; tel : +32 (0)2 2956911;
Email - marjukka.mahonen@dg8.cec.be
TROPICAL FOREST BUDGET LINE MANAGEMENT
The reorganisation process in which both DGI and DGVIII are involved (see previous issue of the ETFRN News) is having an impact on the management of the tropical forest budget line. DG1B has 70 tropical forestry projects and two tropical forestry experts, one of whom is a National Expert who is due to leave,but will be replaced. The other expert is being assigned elsewhere. In DGVIII, it is not clear whether the tropical forestry National Expert will be replaced. These changes go against the recommendations of an ongoing evaluation of the Commission's tropical forest activities which suggests that staff need to be brought together in a ‘tropical forest task force'.