9th Meeting of the Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management

9^th Meeting of the Carpathian Convention Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management (WG Forest)  will be held online on 16 May 2023. Please save the date in your busy schedules!

The meeting will focus on the implementation of the WG Forest Work Plan 2023-2026, more specifically on:

• Finalization of the inventory of virgin forests, the results of which will be sent to the CCIC for consideration and submission to the COP7.
• Discussion on the definition and criteria of the natural forests in the Carpathians, the results of which will be sent to the CCIC for consideration.
• Update and presentation of the draft Assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Carpathian forests and their ecosystem services, with the view to present the finalized Assessment at the COP7.
• Support to Ukraine in the framework of the Carpathian Convention.

Please see the meeting report of the 8^th WG Forest meeting that was held in October 2022 in Levice, Slovakia, and attached the WG Forest Work Plan 2023 – 2026 implementing the Forest Protocol and its Strategic Action Plan, that was agreed based on the meeting discussions.

Further to the agreed next steps (see the meeting report) on the extension of the Inventory of the virgin forest in the Carpathian to other degrees of naturalness, particularly natural forests, the Secretariat, in consultations with Slovakia – Chair of the WG Forest, prepared a background document for discussion at the upcoming meeting on definitions and criteria on natural forests in the Carpathians.

Bearing in mind that climate change is one of the priority topic for the WG Forest, as well that the Carpathian Convention COP6 encouraged strengthening cooperation between WG Forest and WG Climate Change, for facilitating the implementation of Article 14 of the Forest Protocol and developing the Assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Carpathian forests and their ecosystem services, the Members and Observers of the WG Climate Change are warmly welcome to join the online meeting.