European Forestry Commission Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds

About the Working Party

The third session of the FAO European Forestry Commission (EFC) (1 September 1950) examined issues related to soil rehabilitation and conservation through rational use of water resources within basins and established the Working Party on Torrent Control, Protection from Avalanches and Watershed Management. In 1951, FAO was asked to provide support to this new Working Party.

Its first session was held in Nancy, in 1952. Since then, sessions have been held on a regular biannual basis and, up to date, 25 sessions have been carried out. Members of the Working Party are officially designated by their respective governments. In view of the fact that it was forest services who had institutional responsibility for these issues in mountainous areas at the national level, the name of the Working Party from 1970 onwards has been “The Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds (WP-MMW)”.

For more than five decades, the core concerns of the Working Party have progressively included torrent control and protection against avalanche (1950-1960), socio-economic and agricultural aspects (1960-1970), environmental issues (1970-1978), and global development priorities in an exchange with countries beyond Europe (1978-2000). Today the WP counts 33 European member countries and a representative of the European Community. The Working Party is chaired on a rotational basis by a member country. FAO provides the Secretariat to the Working Party.

The twenty-fifth session of the European Forestry Commission Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds was held in Salzburg, Austria, from 24 to 26 April 2006.
The twenty-sixth session was jointly organized by FAO, METLA and SYKE, and took place in Oulu, Finland, from 19 to 22 August 2008.
The twenty-seventh session of the Working Party will be hosted by the Slovak Republic, most probably in May 2010.