Headquarters Joensuu, Finland EFI Director Marc Palahà | Membership 25 member states Website efi.int | |
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Formation 1993 as a NGO and 2005 as an international organization | ||
The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international organisation established by the European states. By the spring of 2013, a total of 25 European states had ratified the Convention on EFI. With its about 120 Associate and Affiliate Member organisations, five Regional Offices and three Project Centre, it offers forest research contacts and collaboration at the European level. The headquarters of the Institute is in Joensuu, Finland.
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Regional offices
EFI's five Regional Offices are integral parts of the institute. They give EFI a strong regional presence around Europe, while in return EFI brings increasing visibility to regional issues at the European level.
Country members
The Convention on the European Forest Institute has been ratified by total of 25 European countries by the spring of 2013, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. These countries each have a seat in the highest decision-making body in EFI's organisation, the Council.
Associate and Affiliate members
EFI currently has approximately 120 member organisations from more than 35 countries. The benefits of associate and affiliate membership include voting rights for important decisions, access to the EFI network, news and announcements related to European forest research, visibility on the EFI website, and opportunity to receive EFI publications and publish announcements in EFI News free of charge.
Project centres
EFI also has project centres around Europe. These centres focus on specific topics relevant to particular regions or important issues.
The mediterranean project centre, MEDFOREX was initiated by the Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), and was then incorporated by EFI in 2011, as EFIMED.
Activities
EFI conducts research and provides policy support on forest related issues. Further, it facilitate and stimulates forest related networking as well as promotes the supply of unbiased and policy relevant information on forests and forestry. It also advocates for forest research and for scientifically sound information as a basis for policy-making on forests. All these activities are done either at the pan-European level or the work is of European relevance and they are carried out by both the Institute's HQ and Regional Offices. The Headquarters' programmes are:
EFI's work on the field of policy support includes enhanced support for decision and policy makers. It has a strong policy support role by hosting the EU FLEGT Facility which supports the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process in developing countries, related to the implementation of the EU FLEGT Action Plan. EU FLEGT Facility assist the European Commission and the EU Member States in their joint efforts of its implementation.