Dear friends and colleagues,

IUFRO All Division 7 Conference “Global Change and Forest Health” (University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, 25-29 April 2016, see www.foresthealth2016.com).

Key points

The due date for abstract submission has been extended to 12 December.

To date we have received ca. 300 abstracts (oral and poster) and we have begun to review these. Session organisers will be invited shortly to review abstract submitted to their sessions.

Early Bird registration is available until 31 December 2015 (300 Euros regular, students receive a 50% discount)

Keynote speakers have been confirmed and more information is now available on the website (also see below)

Safety

The conference organizing committee continues to monitor the safety situation, and we are also consulting with the Secretariat of IUFRO. Other conferences in Turkey and Europe continue to go ahead as planned. The venue of our conference is in a quiet part of the city, and the location is regarded as safe.

We will advise you if there are any changes. Should it become necessary to postpone or cancel the conference, registration fees will be reimbursed in full (less transaction fees).

Keynote speakers

We have confirmed three keynote speakers who will address different aspects of the conference theme “Global Change and Forest Health”:

- Dr. Treena Burgess (Murdoch University, Australia, Associate Professor in Plant Sciences)

- Dr. Marcus Lindner (European Forest Institute, Head of Programme, Sustainability and Climate Change)

- Dr. Andrea Battisti (University of Padova, Italy, Professor of Forest Entomology)

See the website for further information.

Numerous other plenary and invited presentations will be given (and announced later).

Abstract submission

You are kindly invited to submit your abstract for oral or poster presentations (see www.foresthealth2016.com). When you submit your abstract, you can select either one of the 16 pre-arranged sessions or a general session (“other”).

We will review all abstract submissions and ensure they will be placed in suitable sessions. Cross-disciplinary abstracts including two or more of the conference subjects (climate change, biological invasions, air pollution, forest pathology, forest entomology) are particularly encouraged.

Please submit your abstracts by 12 December 2015.

See the web page www.foresthealth2016.com for more information about the conference.

Feel free to contact us with any questions and comments.

Kind regards

Ecki Brockerhoff, Yusuf Serengil, Elena Paoletti, Jolanda Roux, Sandy Liebhold

(Conference Scientific Committee)

Eckehard Brockerhoff

Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute) and

University of Canterbury, School of Biological Sciences - New Zealand

Coordinator IUFRO Division 7, Forest Health

Member of the Conference Scientific Committee

eckehard.brockerhoff@scionresearch.com