GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October Gouverning Council Meeting 2014 Nessebar (Bulgaria) Nessebar (Bulgaria) Добър ден!

GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October FOREST EUROPE (The Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe) is the pan-European political process. FOREST EUROPE develops common strategies for its 46 member countries and the European Union on how to protect and sustainably manage forests. Since 1990, the collaboration of the ministers responsible for forests in Europe has had a great economic, environmental and social impact on the national and international level. FOREST EUROPE Work Programme identified five topics on the strategic direction including an external review of the Forest process and created other activities related to a possible legally binding agreement on forests in Europe. The FOREST EUROPE signatory countries and observers participate in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) created to develop a legally binding agreement on forests in the pan-European region as mandated by the ministers at the Oslo Ministerial Conference. FOREST EUROPE is involved with other global and regional processes and initiatives dealing with issues of highest political and social relevance related to forests. Spain currently holds FOREST EUROPE

GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October Expert Level Meetings are the decision-making bodies between the conferences Strasbourg 1990, Helsinki 1993, Lisbon 1998, Vienna 2003, Warsaw 2007, Oslo 2011, MADRIT The Expert Level Meetings are attended by representatives of FOREST EUROPE signatories (European states and the European Community) as well as by observers from non-European countries, international organizations and a variety of stakeholders, including environmental and social NGOs, forest and land owners’ associations, forest industry and the scientific community. Oslo, Norway, November 2009; Oslo, Norway, March 2010; Geneva, Switzerland, December 2010; Oslo, Norway, March 2011; Madrid, Spain, February 2012; Madrid, Spain, 6-7 March Valladolid, Spain, on 4-5 February at this meeting the preparatory process was discussed in an informal setting in which a road map was elaborated, but not finalized. Cuenca, Spain, 6-7 November The Expert Level Meeting is invited to decide on the draft decision to be prepared for the FOREST EUROPE Extraordinary Ministerial Conference;

GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October Arround this process has been organized a lot of workshops, events, e.g.: Green economy and social aspects of SFM (June 2014 in Rome), Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services (September 2014, Belgrad). Improvements in Tools for SFM.

GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October At the FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference, Oslo 2011, the ministers adopted the Oslo Mandate for negotiations of the legally binding agreement (LBA) on forests in Europe and decided to take further international action and established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. Four sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee were convened during The Committee elaborated the substantive part of the agreement through negotiations at INC1 (Vienna, 2012), INC2 (Bonn, 2012), INC3 (Antalya, 2013) and its resumed session (St. Petersburg, 2013), INC4 (Warsaw, 2013) and its resumed session (Geneva, 2013) and concluded ad referendum on the substantive part of the text.

GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October At the Resumed Fourth Session of the INC held in Geneva on 7-8 November 2013 the Committee concluded its work. The Committee negotiated in good faith; however the full agreement was not reached due to significant differences of views on some issues. The committee decided to transmit the draft text of the legally binding agreement to the Extraordinary FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference for consideration and for possible decision on appropriate actions. The INC also recommended that the LBA should be brought under the United Nations umbrella.

GCM, Nessebar – Bulgaria 10th of October Thank you for your attention! Благодаря!