About BirdLife European Forest Task Force
Who we are
The Forest Task Force is a European working group of the BirdLife International Partnership. The Task Force was set up at the European Partnership Meeting in Gibraltar in 2001.
The scope of the Task Force includes policy on forest issues, i.e. conservation of forests and forest birds, forestry practices, forest certification and other means to apply ecological aspects to so-called sustainable forestry. Membership of the Task Force is open to all BirdLife Partners and Partner Designates in Europe as well as to the BirdLife Secretariat. At the moment the active FTF members come from Partners mainly from East and North Europe, namely: Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, Belarus, Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Norway, Latvia. Sweden, UK and Germany used to be more active.
Our objectives
To ensure that forestry and forest managing practices, including afforestation, in Europe:
– does not harm forests or other habitats of high ecological value;
– does not threaten forest birds;
– supports the recovery of ecological biodiversity in commercial forests
We seek to achieve our objectives by:
– disseminating information concerning relevant development in forest and forestry issues in Europe; exchanging information within the BirdLife Partnership on forest-related topics and their potential impact, and on opportunities for forest conservation.– creating relationship and network linkages between BirdLife and other NGOs active in forest conservation;
– developing common BirdLife positions on forests and forestry in Europe when appropriate; helping to prepare BirdLife's position on the development and changes of the forest policy of other international organisations such as EU, UN, European Council and the states of Europe;
– co-ordinating activities of members of the Task Force on forestr related issues; co-ordinating the Partnership’s efforts to identify and protect an effective network of ecologically valuable forest areas;
– advising BirdLife Partners, the Secretariat and relevant BirdLife institutions on matters related to forests and forestry
– developing project proposals in collaboration with the fundraising staff of the Secretariat and relevant Partners for forest conservation projects and so aiding capacity building amongst BirdLife Partners;
– ensuring the representation of BirdLife’s view in the European debate on environment and forestry;
– influencing international institutions and organisations to achieve development in common European forest policy and forest conservation, notably the EU Forestry Strategy, MCFPE (Ministerial Conference on Forest Protection in Europe), PEBLanDS (Pan-European Landscape and Biodiversity Strategy) and CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity).