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I. INTRODUCTION

1. The Executive Committee and five subsidiary bodies of the International Poplar Commission (IPC) met in Sapança (Turkey) from 3 to 7 October 1994 at the kind invitation of the Government of Turkey. Participants were welcomed by Dr Osman Taskin, Deputy Under Secretary in the Ministry of Forestry, on behalf of his Minister. Dr Taskin stressed the importance of poplars to the Turkish rural economy, both in their productive and protective functions, the expanded plans being made for future development and the large contribution that has been made to poplar growing by the Poplar and Fast-Growing Trees Research Institute.

2. Mr Victor Steenackers, Chairman of the Executive Committee, thanked Dr Taskin for his welcome and the organizers for their hard work. He spoke of his pleasure at returning to Turkey for a meeting of the IPC. In reviewing the objectives of the IPC he stressed the importance of the deliberations of the subsidiary bodies both for their technical outputs and their contribution to the selection of the theme for the next Session.

3. Mr Jan Doorenbos, FAO Representative to Turkey, speaking on behalf of the Director-General of FAO, thanked those present for their participation and Dr Birler, Director of the Poplar and Fast-Growing Trees Research Institute and Mr Dönmez, Head of Foreign Relations and EC Coordination Department, Ministry of Forestry and others for the arrangements that had been made. He referred to the potentially important role played by poplars in bringing economic and environmental benefits to those most in need, and emphasised the necessity to attract more member countries to the IPC to exchange information and jointly implement agreed programmes.

4. The Thirty-seventh Session of the Executive Committee of the IPC was held on 5 October. The Session opened at 0900; it was a chaired by Mr V. Steenackers (Belgium). It was attended by 10 members of the Executive Committee and 6 Chairmen or Secretaries of subsidiary bodies.

5. The agenda as shown in Annex 1 was approved. Mr Ball, Secretary of the IPC, was responsible for the work of the Secretariat.

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