The Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe will gather the ministers responsible for forests in Europe as well as representatives of non-European observer states of the MCPFE and international governmental and non-governmental organisations. It will be co-chaired by the ministers of Austria and Poland.
At the Conference, the ministers and the representative of the European Community will express their commitment to sustainable forest management. The decisions they take will be of the highest political relevance for the ecological, economic and socio-cultural development of forests in an integrated manner. In response to today’s most important demands placed on forests, concrete actions will be adopted.
Participation
The Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe will be attended by designated representatives of 44 European countries, the European Community as well as 13 non-European countries and 29 international governmental and non-governmental organisations.
A multi-stakeholder dialogue is scheduled for the first day of the Conference in the morning session. It will provide a platform for the non-governmental MCPFE observer organisations to express their experiences and views on the issues to be considered by the Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.
The multi-stakeholder dialogue will proceed as follows:
The non-governmental observer organisations of the MCPFE will be divided into five groups.
1. Forest owners
2. Forest based industry
3. Environmental non-governmental organisations
4. Social non-governmental organisations
5. The scientific community
At the beginning of the multi-stakeholder dialogue, one opening statement will be given by each stakeholder group. Subsequently, the dialogue will start with the replies by the ministers of Austria, Poland, Portugal and Norway representing the countries of the General Co-ordinating Committee of the MCPFE, and also, if directly addressed, by other ministers.
The official group statements and a chairmen’s summary of the dialogues will be included in the Conference proceedings and will be an integral part of the outcomes of the 4th Ministerial Conference.
Excursion
An excursion takes the participants of the Conference to the Danube Flood Plain National Park east of Vienna. For lunch, the participants are invited to Schloss Eckartsau, a small baroque hunting chateau in the national park. The excursion will provide various types of information related to the topics of the Conference, the national park and the castle.
