This year the IEFC general assembly was organised in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy to make use of Villa Parco Bolasco a facility owned by University of Padova, a new IEFC member.

The meeting started with 4 interesting talks in the open session where all IEFC members can share ongoing projects and initiatives related to planted forest :

• Valerio Giuffrida (Nottingham University): Deep learning for plants : where are we now?
• Ignacio Diaz Maroto (Lugo University) : Use of Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco in reforesting for the production of quality wood in northwestern Spain
• Hervé Jactel (INRAe): Effect of forest composition on ticks and tick-borne disease – [presentation cancelled, but available online]
• Tomas Sanchez (CESEFOR): Life Soria Forest Adapt: Adaptation tools for the design of new plantations
• Andrea Battisti: Norway spruce and bark beetles in planted forests of the Southern Alps.

Andrea Battisti welcomed the audience on behalf of the university of Padova that is one of the most important and best ranked universities in Italy with more than 70000 students each year.

Susana Barreiro chaired the general assembly and opened the floor with the president of the board report (Rapport Moral), highlighting key developments of the association over the last few months in line with the new strategy established in 2019. These included a new domain name to reflect better the scope of the institute, the initiation of the “Let’s Talk About Planted Forests” webinars, the planted forest report series in preparation, IEFC network fund to facilitate joint initiatives and collaborations between members, improved conditions for employees, forthcoming major events, new memberships and extension of the network extension.

The reporting session was an unique opportunity for all IEFC members to have an overview of all the ongoing activities covering networking activities, ongoing R&D projects, and communication activities.

Fabienne Benest represented the treasurer Roland de Larry to share the good news of this year’s positive financial balance compensating for last year’s losses.

An interactive session took place to discuss the future of all infrastructures managed by IEFC :

The day ended with a round table discussion co-organised with the IUFRO Wind and Trees Conference to share views on risk trends and the benefits and disadvantages of planted forest in the context of global change : the panel consisted of Mat-Jan Schelhaas (multirisks), Andrea Battisti (insects), Emanuele Lingua (storm and forest management), and Erico Kutchartt (fire fuel map) ; and was chaired by Susana Barreiro.

The video of the round table discussion can be viewed here, and all presentations are available in the general assembly restricted area for members.

Christophe Orazio, CEO, IEFC