Implementation of MCPFE Commitments : National and Pan-European Activities 1998-2003

Wien

2003

88 S.

Monographie

3-902073-08-X

107427

The Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) is a dynamic policy process for the protection and sustainable management of forests. The political commitments made by the European forest ministers and the European Community over the last 13 years have influenced forest policy decisions in many countries. but how exactly have these decisions been implemented? Which activities, measures and actors have been involved in this process? What are the lessons that can be learned from this huge amount of work done in Europe in relation to forests? These were the types of questions that the participants of the MCPFE Expert Level Meeting in October 2001 asked themselves and decided that a report on the implementation of the commitments made by the signatory states and the European Community should be initiated. It was agreed that one part of the report should cover the national implementation of commitments made at the Lisbon Conference as well as further progress in implementing commitments made at previous Ministerial Conference (Helsinki, Strasbourg). The participants further decided that the second part of the report should analyse the implementation of MCPFE commitments at the pan-European level on the basis of the MCPFE Work Programme. Following this duidance, the report on the implementation of MCPFE commitments contains these two levels of analysis - national and pan-European. The report gives information about progress and achievements in the implementation of MCPFE commitments since 1998, the obstacles that have been faced and the gaps in implementation as well as further needs.