CEPF President, Sven Erik Hammar, opened the General Assembly. In his opening speech, the President stated that EU forests and wood are part of the climate change solution, not a problem. He reminded that subsidiarity must be the basic principle for the EU when dealing with forest-related questions. The President underlined European forest owners’ role in developing and evolving the principles of sustainable forest management, and that due to climate change forest owners are constantly adapting their forest management practices. He pointed out that there is a growing number of forest owners with other objectives than providing timber , in line with the ongoing discussion at EU level on Payments for Ecosystem Services. Finally, the President thanked the CEPF Team and the Board for their work during the past year which has been challenging both politically and in other terms.
During the General Assembly, CEPF members unanimously re-elected Zdenko Bogovic (Croatia), Sven Erik Hammar (Sweden), Hubert de Schorlemer (Luxembourg), António Paula Soares (Portugal) and Ivo von Trotha (Germany) as CEPF Board Members. Mr. Hammar (picture) was re-elected to continue as CEPF President.
After the formal meeting, CEPF President and the President of the Union of Foresters of Southern Europe (USSE), Bruno Lafon, signed a partnership agreement between the two organisations strengthening the voice of Southern European forest owners in CEPF.
The GA participants also heard presentations about Slovenian forests which cover 58% of the country making it the 3rd most forested country in Europe. Dr. Aleš Poljanec from the Slovenian Forest Service gave an introduction on “Sustainable, close-to-nature & multipurpose forest management in Slovenia”, Aleš Kadunc from the Association of Slovenian Large-sized Forest Properties presented on “Economic and Technological aspects of Forest Management in Slovenia” and Mihael Koprivnikar from the Forest Owners’ Association of Slovenia introduced participants to Slovenian wood auctions.
On the last day of the gathering, the host organised an excursion to different forest sites around Bled. During the trip the participants visited a pine forest, a peatland, a site where selected harvesting had taken place and two sites with damages caused by weather and pests. Participants also observed harvested roundwood with different qualities.
CEPF Secretariat warmly thanks the Forest Owners’ Association of Slovenia for the great organisation of the meeting! In 2023, CEPF General Assembly has been invited to Finland!
Pictures from the CEPF GA 2022
