Forest Europe Expert-Level Meeting(ELM)

21st & 22nd of June 2023: An IFSA Delegate perspective

FOREST EUROPE Expert Level Meeting, Dresden 2023

From the 21st to the 22nd of June, FOREST EUROPE (Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe) organized the Expert Level Meeting of 2023 (ELM for short), the first in-person gathering under the German Chairmanship since the COVID-19 pandemic. The ELM is a very important annual meeting for the FOREST EUROPE process, which brings together signatories and observers to deliberate on many important topics and make necessary decisions.

Hotel Steigenberger, Dresden – ELM 2023 Venue (Photo credits FOREST EUROPE)

This year’s meeting comprised 59 delegates from 27 signatory countries, the European Commission, and 12 observer organizations, including IFSA, IUFRO, UNFF, and EUSTAFOR. Often, a small delegation of IFSA students travels throughout Europe to follow the developments in forest policy. In this very case, I had the privilege to represent the organization through my participation at ELM 2023, as a member of the Greek Forestry Students’ Association – LC Thessaloniki and the current Head of FOREST EUROPE sub-commission, under the International Processes Commission of IFSA.

The IFSA-FOREST EUROPE collaboration allows IFSA members to engage closely and actively in events and meetings held under the FOREST EUROPE process, such as Ministerial Conferences, Expert Level Meetings, and Round Table Meetings. IFSA plays an essential role in representing the opinion of the youth in forestry in the FOREST EUROPE process.

IFSA delegate Marsia Moutzouri, together with Juliet Achieng (IFSA’s focal point at FOREST EUROPE) and Janice Burns, IFSA’s Focal Point at IUFRO and delegate during ELM 2023 (Photo credits FOREST EUROPE)

FOREST EUROPE is a Pan-European voluntary high-level forest policy process that develops common strategies for its 46 signatories on protecting and sustaining their forest, established 33 years ago. The main aim of ELM is to provide the grounds for exchanging ideas, discussing future working modalities, and making high-level decisions to produce meaningful results with a positive impact on the forest sector of Europe. In this context, the sessions during ELM were formed under the following topics:

Rapid Response Mechanism: supporting the Ukrainian forest sector and its forests
The 2nd High-Level Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and Resilience
Think Tank on the dynamic concept of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)
Preparations for the 9th Ministerial Conference in 2024 (October 1-2, 2024 in Bonn, Germany)
Green Jobs and Forest Education Developments
FOREST EUROPE’s future working modalities

ELM 2023 sessions – delegates inside the Conference Room (Photo credits FOREST EUROPE)

After one full day of discussions on the 21st and the first part of the 22nd, the conference was concluded with a field trip for the ELM participants in the forest district of “Baerenfels” of Saxony and the forest-historical Campus of Tharandt, just a few kilometers from Dresden. In that first part of the excursion, we visited a few forest sites in Baerenfels, where we had the opportunity to discuss with representatives of the Sachsenforst State Enterprise the efforts of creating adapted and resilient forests and see for ourselves the practical implementation of SFM on site. For the second part, we made it to one of the longest-standing forestry educational institutions worldwide, established back in 1811, the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Dresden-Tharandt (https://tu-dresden.de/bu/umwelt/forst). There, we had the chance to enjoy different events, with the most major one being the presentation of the challenges of forest science and education in times of increasing pressures and demands on forests and the forest sector and also listening to the students’ views (Anne Austen and Jacob Riedel) on how to promote youth inclusion in the sector, how to equip students with generic skills, among others.

Department of Forest Sciences, Tharandt Campus (Photo credits FOREST EUROPE)

As an experience overview, high-level discussion events such as ELM are the perfect occasion for the youth to be essentially represented and broaden their network with like-minded allies that play a significant role in forest policies, providing not only the chance for young people in Forest Sciences to be heard but also the opportunity to learn how these conferences are conducted in terms of decision-making, the overall knowledge of how to delegate, by making valid points and spot-on interventions, while listening attentively. One cannot and the broadening of the networking with like-minded people who care to raise the Forest sector in a better place. The experience and the know-how a young representative can gain is definitely invaluable!

Written by Marsia Moutzouri, Head of FOREST EUROPE sub-commission

You can read more about the meeting and its outcomes here: https://foresteurope.org/signatories-and-observers-of-forest-europe-met-in-dresden-to-shape-the-future-of-sustainable-forest-management/