Dear Brigitte,

I am sorry to have to send this to you and ask for your kind support in sending the below to the division 7.02 pathology e-mail list. This was likely the last effort to get it to work in Mexico for us in the near future at least. Turned out to be very tricky to get people to sign up. A real pity for our Mexican colleagues who have put in a lot of time to organize this over many years now.

Best regards
Jonas

 

Dear colleagues,

It is with regret that we inform you that the planned IUFRO Conference on Root and Stem Rots in Xalapa, Mexico, has been cancelled due to an insufficient number of registrations to ensure a viable scientific meeting.

This decision was not made lightly. The Local Organizing Committee invested considerable time and effort in preparing what promised to be an excellent conference, combining a strong scientific programme with unique opportunities to experience the forests, culture, and hospitality of Veracruz. We sincerely thank our colleagues at the Universidad Veracruzana for their dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work throughout the planning process.

Although we are disappointed that the meeting cannot proceed as planned, we are pleased to share a positive development for our Working Party.

Over the past several weeks, we have been in discussion with the organizers of the IUFRO Division 7 Conference, which will be held in Edmonton, Canada, in August 2026, about bringing together the Root and Stem Rots community as part of that meeting. These discussions have been very positive.

We intend to organize a dedicated half or potentially one-day scientific session of the IUFRO Root and Stem Rots Working Party, complemented by field excursions featuring root diseases and their management in western Canadian forests. This will provide an opportunity to present current research, exchange ideas, strengthen existing collaborations, and welcome new researchers to our community, while also benefiting from the broader scientific programme of the Division 7 Conference.

Further details about the Working Party session, opportunities to submit contributions, and the planned field excursions will be announced once they have been finalized with the Division 7 Organizing Committee.

We appreciate your understanding regarding the cancellation of the Xalapa meeting and sincerely hope that many of you will instead join us in Edmonton. We look forward to continuing the strong tradition of collaboration and scientific exchange that has long characterized our Working Party.

Thank you for your continued support, and we hope to see you in Canada.

With best regards,

Jonas Rönnberg
Chair, IUFRO Working Party on Root and Stem Rots, on behalf of the Working Party Executive Committee

 

Jonas Rönnberg
Associate prof.
Director SLU Forest Damage Centre
Head of SNS (Nordic Forest Research) and NKJ (Nordic Joint Committee on Agricultural and Food Research)

SLU Alnarp
Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre
P.O. Box 190
SE-234 22 Lomma
Sweden

Office: +46 40 415179
Cell: +46 70 6727643