Antoine Kremer, the coordinator of EVOLTREE at INRA, was invited to provide a general overview of the objectives and structure of the Network of Excellence and illustrated the scientific challenges and questions that EVOLTREE is addressing. He also introduced a new initiative, FoResTTraC, which is a collaborative project between Europe and North America (Canada and the USA), starting in January 2010.

EUFORGEN

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Jarkko Koskela (Bioversity International) presented the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) and its recent activities.

TREEBREEDEX

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Gerry Douglas provided an overview of the TREEBREEDEX project and its objectives and activities. He also described the different outputs produced so far.

NovelTree

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Catherine Bastien, the coordinator of NovelTree, provided an overview of this European research initiative. She showed how the project is developing new improved and novel tree breeding strategies, to meet changing societal and environmental needs.

EUFGIS

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Jarkko Koskela (Bioversity International) presented an update to the recent activities of the EUFGIS project (Establishment of a European Information System on Forest Genetic Resources), which is being implemented in close collaboration with the EUFORGEN member countries.

Evaluation of Beech Genetic Resources for Sustainable Forestry

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Georg von Wuehlisch, of the COST action E52 on the Evaluation of Beech Genetic Resources for Sustainable Forestry, gave a presentation of this initiative which is coming to a conclusion in March 2010. The objective of the COST action was a) to evaluate pan European beech provenance trials, b) to analyse patterns of populations of European beech, c) to attempt a prediction of the future range of distribution of European beech based on reaction patterns found.

Movement of forest reproductive material: a strategy to cope with climate change

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Reiner Finkeldey (University of Göttingen) presented an overview of the challenges posed by climate change in Europe and discussed some crucial steps in forest management that have a considerable role in determining future responses to climate change, such as forest regeneration practices and the choice of forest reproductive material.