ThinkForest

A European high-level forum on the future of forests

Think Forest logo We live in a changing environment with complex relationships between forests, climate, other ecosystems and different sectors, society and economy. These relationships are partly of a global, regional or local nature, and pose challenges for meeting the multifunctional demands on forest resources, and for ensuring sustainable forest management. Because of their widely cross-sectoral nature, they require significant engagement with other sectors such as energy, environment, trade, climate change, agriculture and water.

Due to the extremely diverse policy environment which affects forests and increasing demands on forests from other sectors and from general society, there is a growing need to strengthen communication between the science community and key policy makers in the EU. For this reason, the European Forest Institute, after consultation with leading experts on forest policy in Europe, is supporting and facilitating the establishment of a high-level discussion and information-sharing forum, “ThinkForest”.

This provides an active and efficient science-policy interface and fosters an inspiring and dynamic science-policy dialogue on strategic forest-related issues. The forum is led by a high-profile President, Mr. Göran Persson, the former Swedish prime minister, and a high-level Advisory Board.

ThinkForest brochure

The forum will…

 - Establish mechanisms for regular communication and information sharing between the scientific community and relevant members of the European Parliament, lead experts of the European Commission of the EU Member States and other European States, and key stakeholder group leaders.

 - Identify information needs related to forest policy questions and build a common understanding of the problems at hand.

- Help policy makers navigate through the wealth of information on offer, and provide them with the best possible expertise and the latest research-based information from EFI networks for informed decision making.

- Support discussions on existing policy processes as well as on new policy instruments for application in Europe.

Various activities and interactive tools will be used to facilitate dynamic dialogue:

  • Targeted high-level events for focused discussions for policy makers.
  • Open conferences on emerging strategic issues between scientists, decision makers and stakeholders.
  • “Forest lunches” and terrain visits for partnership building and casual debates, etc.
  • Presentations of collective scientific expert reviews for policy makers through different information products (eg. policy briefs) and events (workshops, scientific breakfasts...).
  • Foresight exercises and workshops to identify forest futures (opportunities, challenges, threats).

More information: Marc Palahí, Deputy Director (firstname.lastname@efi.int)