Experts from EU Member States deliberate on forest reproduction material
On 2-3 June, during the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council, the EU experts working group meeting on forest reproductive material was held at the Latvian Ministry of Agriculture. According to the agenda suggested by the European Commission, the meeting discussed topical issues and proposals for a regulation on growing, use and the control of trade regarding forest reproductive material.
Experts discussed issues about the equivalence of the forest reproductive material (FRM) in imports from the third countries and shared information on current forest pests and diseases. They also received updates on Forest Scheme by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in relation to FRM. The participants also discussed the process of improving the regulatory environment and the EU Forest Strategy.
Most of the meeting was devoted to the already developed electronic register for FRM extraction sources in which each Member-State can add FRM extraction sources registered in its territory to the common EU catalogue. Currently the program works in testing mode, and during the meeting the first records in the common catalogue received from the Member States specialists were analysed.
The Chair of the meeting, Diana Charels, admitted that the development of the common catalogue required the most time, thoughts and efforts. She welcomed the opportunity to evaluate the first results of the common catalogue.
Latvian forestry experts presented facts and figures of the Latvian forestry sector, the control of forest reproductive material in the country and the latest studies in forest-tree breeding.
During the meeting, experts visited the Strenā i Tree Nursery owned by AS Latvijas valsts meži, where state-of-the-art plant growing technologies are applied, and the historical Vijciems Cone Dryer and a forest-tree seed orchard.