CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES OF THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (CBD)
An expanded work programme on forest biological diversity was discussed by the Conference of Parties of the CBD at their Sixth Session in The Hague, Netherlands, in April 2002 (COP-6). Discussions were based on a document on the subject passed to COP-6 by the 7th Session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA.), which met in November 2001.
The goals, objectives and activities of the work programme agreed upon in principle by COP-6, included three programme elements:
1. Conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing
(78 activities);
2. Institutional and socioeconomic enabling environment
(42 activities);
3. Knowledge, assessment and monitoring (14 activities).
More specifically, the expanded work programme included mention of strategies on in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable resource use; the need to establish protected area networks and to assess the adequacy and efficacy of existing networks and the facilitation of the participation local and indigenous communities in protected area management. It highlighted the need to include forest biological diversity considerations in programmes related to forest fires, climate change and abatement of pollution, and proposed links to the work programme of on invasive alien species.
For the full report on the decisions and work programme on Forest Biological Diversity, see: http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/cop-06.asp
On the occasion of the 195th anniversary of the establishment of higher forestry education in Slovakia and the 50th anniversary of the College of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen, the Faculty of Forestry, Technical University, Zvolen, Slovakia organized a symposium on Population and Evolutionary Genetics of Forest Tree Species held in collaboration with IUFRO Research Group 2.04 "Genetics" and Arbora Publishers.
The Symposium which were held from 26 to 29 August 2002 in the beautiful settings of Stará Lesná in the High Tatras, Slovakia, were attended by more than 132 participants from 31 countries of five continents.
A number of interesting presentations were given within the following five sessions: 1) Gene diversity and differentiation of natural populations, 2) Gene flow in natural and breeding populations, 3) Introgressive hybridization and phylogeny of forest trees, 4) Gene diversity as the basis for adaptation, 5) Genomics, Gene mapping, QTL's and gene markers as tool of biomonitoring. Ten invited papers, 26 oral voluntary presentations and 46 posters were presented in the symposium.
The presentations will be published in the Proceedings of the meeting.
Further information can be found at: http://alpha.tuzvo.sk/~paule/conference/
