ETFRN and EC News

The ETFRN Webpages have been restyled to make them more accessible and user-friendly. Comments, suggestions for improvement, and information to include in, or link to from the ETFRN site will be much appreciated. Http://www.etfrn.org

For readers in Europe: if you have not done so already, please remember to check, and if necessary update your entry in the ETFRN directory of research institutions. The printed version of the directory is due to appear early next year. Entries of organisations which have not responded will be deleted.

The next ETFRN Steering Committee will be held in Helsinki, Finland, 5-6 February 1999. Items to be discussed will include the ETFRN Coordination Unit's Annual report and plan for 1999, as well as plans for continuation of ETFRN after December 1999, when the present funding phase ends. Feedback on ETFRN, and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Please contact your national focal point or the coordination unit.

EC NEWS

DGXII: FIFTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME FOR RESEARCH
On 17 November 1998, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament reached an agreement on the proposed budget for the fifth framework programme for Research and Technological Development. The agreement must still be formally approved in a third reading by the European Parliament, as well as by the Council. A formal approval before the end of 1998 should enable the first calls for proposals to be published in February or March 1999.

The new EC programme is structured around four thematic programmes, and three transversal programmes, as well as direct actions for the Joint Research Centre.

The three transversal programmes relate to innovation and the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the support given to the human potential of research, and international co-operation.

The four thematic programmes concern:

The launch of the programme is planned for 25-26 February 1999, during a special conference in Essen (Germany).

External advisory groups
On 20 November 1998, the Commission appointed 278 experts to provide independent advice on the Fifth Framework Programme. Selected from nearly 5,000 candidates, they will serve for two years on 17 advisory groups. Half the group members have a research background; this expertise is complemented by a strong industrial component (32%), and research users and regulators (18%). Their first task is to give advice on the content of the FP5 work programmes.
More information on the advisory groups, including the names of group members, may be found at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/press/1998/pr2411en.html

More information on the fifth framework programme and the conference in Essen is available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/fp5.html

The CORDIS server has downloadable documents on the Fifth Framework Programme at: http://www.cordis.lu/fifth/src/docs.htm

JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE (JRC) TREES PROJECT
A large-scale project initiated in the early 1990s, the TREES (TRopical Ecosystem Environment observations by Satellite) project, is dedicated to the development of techniques for global tropical forest inventory and for monitoring deforestation using satellite imagery.

The first task relates to the base line assessment of humid tropical forest cover using low resolution (1 km) remote sensing data. From the resulting global database, three regional vegetation maps have been published or are under elaboration:

The second phase of the TREES project (1996-1999) is funded by the DG-XI (Environment). Its objective is to develop a reliable method for global forest change assessment in the humid tropics using Earth Observation techniques. The approach is based on a statistically distributed sample of sites with a higher sampling rate for fast changing areas. A pre-stratification was performed using two parameters: the forest cover area (from 1 km maps) and areas where changes are expected to be higher based on individual expertise: the 'Hot Spot Report' (1998), presented on p. ... . Forest cover change during the period 1992-1997 will be estimated from the ninety-five sampled sites using high resolution satellite imagery.

The ETFRN Coordination unit has several copies of a CDROM which presents the outline of the first Phase of the project (1991 - 1995) and (paper) copies of the Central Africa map available for distribution.

The TREES-II project website is under construction where digital copies of the maps will be available. An old TREES website may be found at: http://www.mtv.sai.jrc.it/projects/treeswww/trees2.html

The address is:
TREES-II project,
General Coordinator: Frédéric Achard
Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit
Space Applications Institute
Joint Research Centre, TP 641
21020 Ispra (VA) Italy
Fax : +39 332 789073

ETFAG MEETING
The annual European Tropical Forest Advisers Group meeting was held in Edinburgh, hosted by the Department for International Development of the UK last October 20-21. The ETFRN Coordination Unit has information upon request.