Communication: The European Union’s participation in the 7th Forest Europe Ministerial Conference (Madrid, 20-21 October 2015)

The 7th Forest Europe Ministerial Conference will be held in Madrid on 20-21 October 2015. More than 40 European States, among them all Member States of the European Union, together with the European Union (represented by the European Commission) will attend the Conference, which is organised jointly by Spain and Slovakia.

The forest policy discussion under the Ministerial Conferences, renamed Forest Europe in 2009, is an inter-governmental, country-led process launched in 1990 with the objective of promoting the sustainable management of Europe’s forests. It operates by voluntary commitments of its current 47 signatories. The European Union has been a party in the process since its beginning, and, so far, has signed all its resolutions and declarations.

As was the case for past conferences, the 7th Forest Europe Ministerial Conference is a step towards the implementation in Europe’s forests of the various commitments taken at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the commitments taken at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, and at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF, 2000 to the present).

The 7th Forest Europe Ministerial Conference in Madrid will address the following topics:
- Green economy and social aspects of sustainable forest management;
- Protection of forests in a changing environment;
- The future direction of Forest Europe.

Forest Europe: Ministerial Conferences: Madrid 2015 http://foresteurope.org/mc/madrid-2015

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