From the Scottish confines to Portugal's Finistère and even to the Algarve's marches, a forestry dynamic has been established over the last 25 years under the aegis of the IEFC. If the Atlantic atmosphere could be a reason to unite the driving forces of forestry today and tomorrow, it is above all women and men of different languages and cultures who have wanted to work together. Experimentation, cross-fertilisation of initiatives, testing, exchange, facing the elements and hazards, but always seeking to understand, was the guiding principle of these formidable years. The IEFC has become a crossroads for silvicultural intelligence dedicated to the sustainable management of cultivated forest ecosystems. And it was the strength of the institution from the outset that it put forward the merits of sustainable wood production, i.e. production that is ecologically, economically and socially acceptable. Because the material of the future is indeed the material of its origins: wood. And the IEFC is constantly promoting its uses, and therefore its production. These 25 years have confirmed the need to work together, from North to South, to ensure a real future for our forests. Happy birthday to the IEFC and long life!

Arriving from Mediterranean and mountain forest management in 2000, two years after the launching of IEFC, I did not expect to meet such a community of enthusiast people addressing environnemental, societal and economical challenges. I discovered how much wood sector relies on planted forests and how important it can be in transition economies and contributed structural changes with the definition of indicators for sustainable management. I was trusted by many presidents from the beginning of IEFC (Michel Arbez, Margarida Tomé, Inazio Martinez, Jean-Michel Carnus,...). I did not expect to stay so long but the diversity of topics and challenges to address where so enthusiastic that I never gave up always trying to conciliate stakeholders expectation and scientists rigor by facilitating knowledge exchange and setting up nice projects. In addition, we have a strong network, getting more and more European with EFI Research network, even global thanks to the IUFRO Task force on planted forests with so many nice persons. I would like to thank all of them for this 25 years of active cooperation and invite all organisation willing to improve sustainability and resilience of planted forest to join our multi-actor network... We have to face global change and further cooperation is needed!

I have many pleasant memories of IEFC meetings ever since Jean-Michel invited me to join the group at the EFI Annual Conference in Bordeaux, in 2001. The years since then have been filled with good meetings, good food and wine and many warm friendships.

Delighted to celebrate 25 years with IEFC! Proud to have been part of this remarkable journey since two years. Happy anniversary and thanks to all our dedicated members and partners!