Dear Forum Members,

Conference 2, on the appropriateness of currently available biotechnologies for the forestry sector in developing countries, of the Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture began on 25th April. It is planned that it will run for 2 months, so we are now at the half-way stage - with one month gone and one month left and this can be a good time to summarise progress in the conference.

Roughly 150 people have joined the conference so far, from a range of different countries, backgrounds and organisations. What is striking is the small number of messages posted so far - 9 (see them on http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/c2logs.htm ). In Conference 1, on the theme of biotechnologies in the crop sector in developing countries, which began on 20 March, there where 99 messages posted within the first month (see the archived messages http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/c1logs.htm ).

We believe that there is a strong need for good discussion on the subject of the appropriateness of new biotechnologies in the forestry sector in developing countries. The messages posted so far on this conference have been of good quality. There is just one month left, so we would very much appreciate it if you could please try to engage yourselves in this important issue in the time that remains of the conference.

Sincerely

The Forum Administrator

p.s. for those wishing to join Conference 2 and who have not yet done so, simply send an e-mail message to [email protected] leaving the subject blank and entering the one-line text message as follows: -

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