In autumn 2008 the Guide to Good Practice in Contract Labour in Forestry was presented to the public at the ENFE Seminar in Brussels.
This Guide has been well acknowledged by contractors associations and their membership all over Europe. Its content is considered as a comprehensive compilation of approved measures to improve contractors´ development and performance.
One of the core issues in this guide is competence development of forestry contractors and their employees, because whatever measure is envisaged to be implemented in enterprise management and activities, knowledge and skills are required.
One recent activity to enhance competences in forestry contracting enterprises is that the content of the Guide has already been taken up by a European project which aims at the development of curricula for conveying management skills to forestry contractors (Concert - European Certificate of Competence for Forestry Contractors - is a Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project which is partly funded by the European Commission in the Lifelong Learning Programme. Project Number: 2009-1-FR1-LEO05-06968).
A second major step into implementing the core messages of the Guide is the ongoing initiative to develop a European umbrella certificate for forestry contractors (EFECT - European Forest Entrepreneurs Certificate). This process is currently under leadership of ENFE setting up the system requirements for a certificate.
The seminar offered the opportunity to exchange experiences, share information and prepare and adapt a strategy in order to enhance the implementation of the main proposals and best practices of the Guide to Good Practice in Contract Labour in Forestry in European countries with the main focus on Eastern and South-Eastern European countries.
The objective of the seminar was to provide an international forum for presentations and solutions related to the subject matter and to connect experiences and prospectives made already in several countries in order to make this information accessible for contractors in countries, which intend to start with the implementation of the Guide.

Meeting documents

Conclusions and recommendations

List of Participants

Presentations

Welcome speaches have been delivered by

Cristian Apostol , Secretary of Sate, Ministry of Environment and Forests of Romania

Bogdan Bazga, FAO National Correspondent in Romania, Counselor for European Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania 

Norbert Winkler, Forestry Officer, FAO, SEU

Welcome
Ioan Sbera,Romanian Contractors Association

The role and the perspective of the forest contractors in the Romanian forestry
Ioan Sbera,Romanian Contractors Association

International Seminar on implementation of the Guide to Good practice in contract labour in Forestry
Edgar Kastenholz, European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs (ENFE)

Research and Development to facilitate implementation of good practice
Edgar Kastenholz, European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs (ENFE)

Forest and forestry of the Republic of Belarus
Dimity Krasovsky, Ministry of Forestry, Belarus

Current Forestry Issues in Georgia
Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia, Forestry Agency

Contract labour in forestry of Kosovo

Private entrepreneurs in forestry - state and prospects
Liubov Poliakova, State Forestry Committee of Ukraine

Faculty of silviculture and forest engineering - Brasov, Romania
Rudolf Derczeni, Lecturer.eng., Forest Engineering Department

What can be done for having environmental-friendly harvesting operations?
Marian Dragoi, University of Suceava, Faculty of Forestry

Padurile si silvicultura din Romania (Romanian)
Gheorghe Marin, ICAS Bucuresti

Implementarea proiectelor finantate din Programul de Cooperare Transnationala Sud Estul Europei - Greseli frecvente in raportare si modalitati de imbunatatire a managementului proiectului (Romanian)
Simona Arghire, Punct National de Contact SEE

Implementarea proiectelor finantate din Programul de Cooperare Transnationala Sud Estul Europei - Greseli frecvente în raportarea cheltuielilor (Romanian)

ConCert - Europe-wide recognition for forestry entrepreneur competences