Dear
IUFRO Division 9 colleagues,
Thank
you very much for your contributions this summer to updating
your units’ address lists/mailing lists and to the recent survey
questionnaire of working parties that was requested by the
Vice-President for Divisions. With this email I am reporting
back from IUFRO’s Executive Board Meeting in Beijing last month
(building on an email from a colleague of Division 1) and
reminding you that the deadline for submission of abstracts for
IUFRO’s 125th Anniversary Congress 2017 is rapidly
approaching.
The
recent meeting of IUFRO’s Executive Board took place 21-22
October 2016 in Beijing, China, in connection with IUFRO’s
Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania 2016 (24-27 October). The
Board had some very productive discussions and drew important
conclusions for future directions of our organization. As a
truly international organization, IUFRO now includes more than
650 members institutions in 125 countries.
In the
near future, IUFRO HQ will send out surveys to (1) IUFRO office
holders, (2) members of the International Council and (3) heads
of member institutions on your / their perception of IUFRO. This
is an important survey for our organization, for example for
adjusting and setting new strategic goals and in considerations
of possible adjustments in our organizational structure. I
really recommend that you set aside time to respond to the
survey when you receive it. In addition to this, an external
review panel will be established to provide additional guidance
for future directions and for adjusting our communication with
non-IUFRO forest stakeholders.
Division
Coordinators unanimously suggested that in the future mailing
lists of participants at our conferences, symposia, meetings,
workshops, courses, etc. should be forwarded directly to the HQ,
c/o Brigitte Burger (burger@iufro.org), and that
these will be used for updating and maintaining the address
lists of all units. If you have additional updates or addresses
for inclusion, these can be forwarded at any time. We believe
that this simple procedure will help facilitate and improve our
communication with colleagues around the world that share an
interest in IUFRO activities, but do not hold a IUFRO office.
The
Board, including all Division Coordinators, is much concerned
about recruiting new and younger IUFRO officers at our regular
officer ‘turn-overs’ every 4 years (remember: you can hold your
IUFRO office for only 2 times 4 years = 8 years in total; then
have to step down, step up or step over to some other position).
The Board agreed to establish, together with IFSA, a IUFRO/IFSA
Mentor Program for Potential Incoming Officers. We hope this
will help rejuvenate (if not regenerate) IUFRO. I take this
opportunity of reminding all of you to actively consider your
replacement in due course before you have to step down yourself.
We still urgently need more younger officers, more female
officers, and more officers from certain, often disadvantaged,
parts of the world.
As you are all aware IUFRO’s 125th Anniversary Congress will be held in Freiburg 19-22 September 2017. Division 9 has submitted (got accepted) the largest number of sessions of all Divisions (more than 30!). You have probably already been reminded before, but: the deadline for submission of abstracts for presentation is 30 November 2016. I strongly encourage all of you to contribute to this very special congress and to help in recruiting more contributions to populate the many congress sessions. You can read more about these at http://iufro2017.com/call-for-abstracts/
All Division 9 Meeting
During the IUFRO 125 Anniversary congress there
will be an All Division 9 meeting held. It is not yet clear at
which time slot this will take place but we assume at the very
beginning of the conference. In order to discuss organizational
matters and to understand synergies and possibilities for
intra-divisional cooperation, please join this meeting. You will
be informed about the time as soon as we get more information
about this.
There
are a few cross-divisional sessions with topics that range
across multiple divisions and research topics. All of these
sessions are open for oral as well as poster presentations,
no speakers have been appointed in advance! Please
consider contributing to these special sessions and encourage
scientists in your IUFRO unit to submit abstracts specifically
for the cross-divisional sessions. You may mention in the
submission which session the presentation is intended for. The
titles of the three cross-divisional sessions follow below; you
can find more detailed information on the congress website.
We
specifically invite research on the interface between
silviculture and non-wood ecosystem services such as recreation,
biodiversity, ground water and other non-timber products and
forest uses. We also invite presentations on research relating
to management philosophy and silvicultural concepts for non-wood
ecosystem services.
Daniela
Kleinschmit
Coordinator,
IUFRO Division 9 – Forest Policy and Economics
-- Prof. Dr. Daniela Kleinschmit Professur für Forst- und Umweltpolitik/ Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy University of Freiburg Tennenbacherstr. 4 D- 79106 Freiburg Tel: +49 (0) 761/203-3712 Secretariat: +49 (0) 761/203-3713