EUROPEAN TROPICAL FOREST RESEARCH NETWORK (ETFRN)

1. Context and objectives

The European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN) was established in 1992, in response to growing concerns on the rapid deforestation occurring particularly in the tropics, and the European Commission's DG XII (now DGRES) desire to mobilise European research to address this challenge.

Objectives: The goal of ETFRN is to ensure that European research contributes to conservation and sustainable management of forests and tree resources in tropics, subtropics & Mediterranean. ETFRN aims to achieve its goal by:

• promoting forest research partnerships and collaboration between the South and Europe.
• developing and promoting dialogue between researchers, policy makers, and forest managers and others influencing the forest environment.
• promoting increased coherence and co-ordination of European research capability in tropical forest research

Tropenbos International hosts the Cooridnation Unit of ETFRN and acts as National Focal Point for the Netherlands

2. Activities

3. Outcomes

The newsletter is much appreciated - in the South and in Europe - more accessible than scientific journals, yet keeps people up to date on ongoing projects and results of tropical forest research in the broadest sense. Total circulation of the paper version is around 3600 copies; and several hundred copies are downloaded from the website.

The ETFRN webservice is recognised as a valuable resource. It provides easy access to relevant web-based information on topics such as climate change; forests and water; biodiversity; non-timber forest products etcetera; also many links to opportunities including vacancies and funding. On average, the central ETFRN site received over 5500 visitors per month, and over 15 000 pages were downloaded per month in 2002.

ETFRN activities, such as the workshops, Q&A, and the newsletter, have catalysed research collaboration and exchange within Europe, between Europe and the South, as well as between Developing Countries.

Creating more effective links between research, policy and practice has proved more difficult to achieve, but progress has been made, particularly in providing information on European Commission policy and funding to the tropical forest research community, as well as providing research-based information to European Commission staff upon request. The ETFRN workshops have also been effective in this respect; eg the ETFRN workshop on certification constraints for small businesses, particularly in developing countries has led to several projects, and to action by FSC. The ETFRN workshop on NTFP biometrics has led to follow up action by FAO and DFID-FRP, which included the development of a manual on resource assessment of non-wood forest products - experience and biometric principles. These are only two examples of the six ETFRN workshops held so far.