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European Landowners’ Organizat ion SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2011 - BIMONTHLY - EN

The European Commission presented on the 12th of October its legislative proposal for the 2014-2020 CAP reform. As ELO we strongly oppose some of it propositions such as the am-biguous definition of active farmer, the absence of indexation of the budget of the CAP or the payment reduction and capping depending on income levels. Capping even if it would not affect many farmers when they employ staff is a wrong message. It will disrupt the competitive-ness of the agricultural sector, and cannot be considered as a simplification when a new level of bureaucracy has been added.The CAP debate will be pursued in the European Council and European Parliament – as ELO we will advocate for our members, as we believe that sustainable production is the EU’s future. But let’s be clear our responsibility is to produce more but better, if we would produce less we would be responsible for harming does who have no access to food

We welcome initiatives such as the European Innovation Partnership, if adequately financed; because 70% of world spending on agricultural research currently takes place in India, China and Brazil. Certainly, as land managers and land owners we have to improve the communication with our citizens, as a lack of public confidence could be a symptom of growing gap between rural and urban life. As an example of our daily base environmental management we welcome the declaration of Commissioner POTOCNIK highlighting the vital role that Europe’s forests and forest products industries play in contributing to the overall 2020 objective of the European Union of achiev-ing a sustainable bio-economy and especially his declaration that a switch to sustainability under a changing climate can only be made if forest owners receive enough funding for the services they provide. As shown by the management of the ongoing economic crises, we have to know where we are going, as there is always a bill to pay. Hard times are very demanding, but are also moments were true reforms are easier to be explained and undertaken.

Thierry de l’EscaillEsecretary General

Editorial

Conserving forest biodiversity: Private initiatives needed

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In Europe and around the world, for-ests continue to face major challeng-es. Among the most important are ille-gal logging and biodiversity loss, both of which figure prominently on the EU’s en-vironmental agenda. Europe’s new 2020 biodiversity strategy highlights the role of forests, and the recently adopted EU logging regulation, which bans illegal-ly logged products from European mar-kets, is also an important tool in this re-spect. “This legislation is one of the few legal instruments the EU has for tackling biodiversity loss”, Gerben-Jan GERBRAN-DY, a member of the European Parlia-ment’s Environment Committee, told at a workshop jointly organised by ACE and WWF ahead of the regulation’s adoption last year.

ACE’s own response to the biodiversi-ty challenge involves action on sever-al fronts, frequently in concert with like-minded stakeholders. It includes:• support for everyday action on the

ground by forest owners to promote sustainable forest management

• a jointprojectwithBirdLifeEuropetoimprove the measurement of biodi-versity in the European forests

• jointsupportwithWWFforEUpolicyto combat illegal logging

• responsibility by ACE companiesfor the traceability of their products throughout the supply chain

For ACE beverage carton manufactur-ers SIG Combibloc, Elopak and Tetra Pak, and their paperboard suppliers, Stora Enso and Korsnäs, responsible sourcing is both a business imperative and an en-vironmental requirement.ACE’s world-wide chain-of-custody commitment (see

box 1) is an independently verified sys-tem whereby wood fibres used in the manufacture of beverage cartons are traced back to their forest of origin. It is an example of the “due diligence” system which the EU’s illegal logging regulation seeks businesses to introduce.

Birds as an indicator of forest biodiversity

Forests are some of the most biologi-cally diverse ecosystems in our planet. Europe’s biodiversity strategy assigns a key role to forests and sustainable forest management. It asks for measurable im-provements in the conservation status of species and habitats. ACE’s project with BirdLife seeks to provide a response tothe need for measuring forest biodiver-sity by developing a forest bird indicator.

ACE and BirdLife have therefore part-nered with the University of Reading in the UK to develop a pan-European for-est bird indicator. The project aims to evaluate the sensitivity of European for-

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C O N T E N T S

• Conserving forest biodiversity: Private initiatives needed to meet public goals 1

• The value of historic houses for tourism, economic and social development 4

• SVOL with visit in the European Parliament. 5

• WAF Congress: Rethinking Agriculture to sustain a growing global population 6

• CAP reform ideas turn to slush? 6

• Water sustainability project complete! 7

• Biodiversity 2020: the priorities 8

• New possibilities in collaboration between CIC and ELO 9

• “Forestry week” in the EP highlights the importance of the sector for achieving a sustainable bio-economy 10

• International year of the forest 2011. 10

• “Bioenergy planning in European regions” conference. 12

• YFCS General Assembly 2011: Looking ahead 14

• Diary dates 16

Chain-of-Custody Commitment

ACE beverage carton manufacturers, Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc, have publicly undertaken to trace back the wood they use to the forest it came from and ensure supply from legal and acceptable sources. In 2007, they initiated a global voluntary sector commitment to reach 100% chain-of-custody certifica-tion for the paperboard purchased worldwide by 2015 and for all the beverage carton manufacturing plants worldwide by 2018.

This commitment is audited annually by ProForest, an independent verifier of nat-ural resources management. ProForest reported that 78% of the wood fibres pur-chased in 2010 by the industry worldwide were FSC Chain-of-Custody certified, and 63% of the plants. It is confident that ACE beverage carton manufacturers will be able to meet their commitments within the specified timeframes.

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est birds as indicators of changes in for-est habitats. Birds are important as indi-cators, because in practice they are the only species group for which sufficient-ly wide-ranging and regularly gathered data sets are available for most EU Mem-ber States.

The EU already uses a composite indica-tor of farmland birds as an official indica-tor of sustainability in that habitat. The re-sults of the current project will be used to create an analogous indicator for for-est habitats, which makes use of annual results obtained from the Pan-Europe-an Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS). The project is evaluating the potential of a forest bird indicator, devel-oped through a comprehensive assess-ment of the forest birds’ habitats, their nesting and feeding requirements at dif-ferent stages of the species lifecycle and at different times of the year. Previous similar studies for species of agricultural habitats have demonstrated the poten-tial of this approach to identify species suitable as indicators for habitat change.

Results so far seem promising. Particular-ly useful aspects include strong evidence that population dynamics are related to resource availability and that birds con-stitute a suitable proxy for forest biodi-versity. Early work indicates that a pan-European forest indicator of a minimum of 17 species will ensure full coverage of resources used by all 60 PECBMS species considered. Among these 17 species are the sparrow hawk and the woodlark. Moreover, the results are consistent with known population trends. For example, it gives evidence that long distance mi-grants are being affected by changes to forest habitats in Europe, not just in their wintering grounds.

ItishopedthattheACE/BirdLifeproject,which is scheduled to conclude later this year, will create a solid science-based in-dicator for forest biodiversity.

Action on the ground

Last but not least is ACE’s encourage-ment of biodiversity as an essential ingre-dient in the management of forests from which paperboard for the beverage car-ton is sourced. Among the management practices ACE companies insist on: • Ecologicallandscapeplanning• Identification and protection of key

habitats and high conservation value areas

• Protectionofwatercoursesandripar-ian zones

• Controlledfires(whereappropriate)• Retentionoftreesandgroupsoftrees

on harvesting sites• Protectionofculturalsites• Guidelinesandtrainingforforestoper-

ations• Creation of new deadwood (see box

2 for case study on the White-backed Woodpecker)

In conclusion, a key learning that ACE has acquired in its involvement with bio-diversity is the mutually reinforcing ben-efits of appropriate policy and focused private initiatives. Collaborative efforts are needed to provide effective response to the challenges that biodiversity is fac-ing today. It is in that spirit that ACE is ap-proaching its partnership with BirdLifethrough an enhanced dialogue and joint research projects.

Katarina MOLIN, Director-General ACE

Case Study, White-backed woodpecker

from Bergvik Skog, a forest company supplying wood fibres for beverage cartons’ paperboard

Background:The threat to the white-backed woodpecker, a criti-cally endangered species in both Sweden and Fin-land, is the decrease of old deciduous forests con-tainingdeadwood. EU Lifeprojects inboth coun-tries aim to protect existing habitats and develop new ones targeting population recovery to a level viable in the long term.

The project participants have selected areas to form a network of existing and poten-tial new territories for the species. Special management guidelines for these habitats have been developed e.g.

• Increase the shareofbroadleaved treesby removing conifers, primarily spruce,through thinning.

• Creatingdeadhardwoodhabitat,especially fromaspen,willow,alderandbirch.Deadwood can be created by harvesters in the form of high stumps.

• Protectingexistingdeadhardwoodhabitat,inparticularstandingdeadtrees.• Damagestandingtreestodevelopfuturedeadwood.• Controlledburnstocreateburntwoodhabitat.• Controlofdeerandmoosepopulationstoallowbroadleavestodevelop.• Createopenclearingsintheforests.• Recreatebroadleaveddominatedwetlandswithannualnaturalfloodingbyfilling

in ditches and removing dams.The maintenance of forests inhabited by woodpeckers also protects other species of boreal natural forests. Without maintenance measures, the forests would gradually become spruce-dominated, and therefore unsuitable habitats for the nesting and feeding of the white-backed woodpecker.

Source: Sharing Experiences – Promoting biodiversity in the European pulp and paper industry, CEPI 2009

MrRodolphedeLOOZ-CORSWAR-EM, Executive President of the European Historic Houses Asso-

ciation explained in his opening speech that the historic buildings sector should be considered as non-profit since it gen-erates large incomes to the benefits of the commercial sector but little profit is retained by historic houses.

In November 2010, the Council of the EU stated that cultural heritage generates 335 billion euro and maintains 9 million jobs in Europe. Moreover, he welcomed the European Commission’s ambition to develop EU actions on sustainable tour-ism and that the European Historic Hous-es Association will have a key role to play in the realisation of those ambitions.

The challenges of making this conference a success, particularly in the light of the EU 2020 Strategy is now more important than ever. This conference, linked with the Annual General Assembly of the Europe-an Historic Houses Association, is an im-portant step towards better understand-ing private cultural heritage in today’s so-ciety. Bringing together in an intensive session, the Commission, the Managers, thePoliticiansandtheOwnerssuchasAl-exandre and Jean-CharlesdeVOGUE forVaux-le-Vicomte, to work out how to best use private historic buildings in the bid to support Europe’s cultural heritage and economic and social development.

Deputy Head of Unit Tourism Policy De-velopment of DG Enterprise, Mr. Alain

The value of historic houses for tourism, economic and social development

european historic houses (ehh)

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LIBEROSstatedthatthereisaneedtopre-serve our historic heritage in order to ex-ploit the tourism potential, while at the same time recognizing the need for sus-tainable management of these some-times fragile tourist sites, while also re-specting the environment and local tra-ditions.

Ms Sneška QUAEDVLIEG-MIHAILOVIC,Secretary General of Europa Nostra ex-plained that our cultural and natural herit-age has an undeniable value and a huge potential for Europe’s economy, society and environment. However, this value is not yet sufficiently recognised by Europe-an policy and decision makers and its po-tential is still largely under-used. She pre-sented the Alliance 3.3 referring to the ar-ticleintheTreatyofLisbonwhichisrelat-ed to cultural heritage. Recently, the Euro-pean Historic Houses joined this alliance 3.3 together with 30 associations to join the lobbying activities of the ever-grow-ing European Heritage movement.

The Deputy Head of Unit and General Co-ordinator of the Culture Programme, Mr. Alessandro SENESI emphasized the vital importance of bringing together the dif-ferent perspectives that include the man-agement of such a specific building: Fol-lowing the historical significance of the place or its geographical position, it goes from being an owner to the embrace a spirit of entrepreneur: It is then necessary to define a strategy, a position, target an audience, set a budget and meet safety standards.

Those positions were particularly wel-comed by the audience and the Europe-an Historic Houses Association plans to build on this successful conference and outcomes to enhance and promote cul-tural heritage as a vehicle for EU econom-ic and social developments.

Donatienne de SEJOURNET

close to 150 persons gathered at the conference in the Royal academies of

Brussels including Deputy Heads of Unit from DG Enterprise, DG culture

and DG Research, with representatives of private European Historic

Houses Owners, and European associations such as Europa Nostra to

discuss the challenges that European Historic Houses have to face together

to maintain their buildings in good shape and to keep them active for

future generations.

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The visit was a great occasion to or-ganise a debate between Czech foresters and representatives of the

European institutions in cooperation with theELOandtheCEPF.Thediscussionwashosted by Hynek FAJMON, Czech MEPand Member of the Committee on Agri-culture and Rural Development who also opened the meeting. Stanislav JANSKY, Vice-chairman of the SVOL, explored onthe current position of the SVOL. MariaGAFOGÓMEZ-ZAMALLOA,fromBioener-gy, Climate change and forests unit at DG Agriculture and rural development, gave a presentation on “New EU Forestry Strat-egy, Rural Development measures for for-estry and Legally Binding Agreement”.Firstly, she underlined the importance of forests for the EU economy and environ-ment, and gave a short overview of the forest policy framework and rural devel-opment measures .

She explained that the new EU forestry strategy, a framework for forest-related actions, would be based on the former one, but also on exchanges with member states, input from working groups and the standing forestry committee. The new EU forestry strategy should ensure more co-herencies among policies. She concluded her presentation with negotiations on the legally binding agreement. She surprised the SVOL members not only with herknowledge of national problems linked to the forestry but also by her awareness of the Czech culture, especially literature.CtiborKOCMAN, fromNatureUnitatDGEnvironment, gave an interesting presen-tation on Natura 2000 implementation in the Czech Republic. A subject that was in-tenselyinterestingfortheSVOLmembers.

HeinformedtheSVOLmembersaboutafew steps which the European Commis-sion is going to undertake to better in-volve land managers, especially foresters in Natura 2000 management. Their contri-

plained that there were six main targets and 20 actions in the strategy. The targets include: full implementation of EU nature legislation to protect biodiversity, better protection of ecosystems, and more use of green infrastructure, more sustainable agriculture and forestry, better manage-ment of fish stocks, tighter controls on in-vasive alien species and a bigger EU con-tribution to averting global biodiversity loss. The meeting in the Parliament was followedbythepresentationoftheLIFE+project 3WATER. http://www.3water.eu/site/

Barbora BUCKOVA

bution has been underestimated in sever-al member states so far, although numer-ous examples from other member states prove that land managers are the best guardians of the EU’s nature and coun-tryside. He concluded his presentations with the EU Biodiversity Strategy. He ex-

SVOL with visit in the European Parliament.

The sVOl (The association of Municipal and Private Forest Owners in the czech Republic) organised for its members a study visit in Belgium. They visited among others, forests in alle-sur-semois, st Michel-Freyr, soignes, suxy, Tervuren and Wellin. This study visit was organised in cooperation with the Royal Belgian association for forestry (la société Royale Forestière de Belgique –sRFB).

european parliament in brief

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The World Agricultural Forum 2011 Congress 2011 to be held this year in Brussels from the 28th November – 1st December will address the agricultur-al supply needs of the world’s grow-ing population and policies, technolo-gies and investments needed to deliver them.

The focus on agriculture and food pro-duction is unprecedented. Prices are ris-ing, shortages are feared and the hun-gry are not getting any less hungry. And concurrently, the responsibilities placed on agriculture and the use of land are in-creasing – as a source of energy, indus-trial raw materials and pharmaceuticals while all the while using less water and reducing the environmental impact.

The ELO and RISE will provide severalspeakers to the Congress: Dr Franz FIS-CHLER, Chairman, RISE and Former Eu-ropean Commissioner of Agriculture, Corrado PIRZIO-BIROLI President ELO,Thierryde l’ESCAILLE,SecretaryGeneraland Professor Allan BUCKWELL, PolicyDirector, who will join The Hon. Clayton YEUTTER, Former US Secretary of Agri-culture and former US Trade Represen-tative,ProfessorPaulCOLLIER,ProfessorofEconomics,OxfordUniversity,JohnC.ATKIN,ChiefOperatingOfficer,SyngentaInternational AG, Mark EKSTEIN, Manag-ing Director International Finance, World Wildlife Fund, Mauritz QUAAK, Member of the Board, SAF-agriculteurs de France, Ms. Sandra E. PETERSON, CEO, Bayer

CropScience, Rt Hon James B. BOLGER,ONZ, Chairman, Former Prime Minis-

WAF Congress: Rethinking Agricultureto sustain a growing global population

CAP reform ideas turn to slush?

Following inconclusive debates in the European Council and Parliament the Commission’s ideas for reform of the CAP post 2013 have now turned to slush. The reform proposals offer no clear principles for the new CAP. We are being offered instead an ad hoc series of complex policy changes in the Pillar 1 Direct Paymentsschemewhichwillpleasefewandflyinthefaceofsimplification.

• Theredistributiontakesusonlyone-thirdofthewaytoafairershare-outofresources, and it is far from clear that the abysmally low UK share of Pillar 2 funds will be rectified.

• Thegreeningelementsofferlittleprospectofadditionalenvironmentalde-livery despite getting considerable extra resources.

• The greening will interfere significantly in farming operations for manyfarms without obvious environmental gain.

• Therestrictivedefinitionofactivefarmerandtheproposedpaymentreduc-tion and capping are highly discriminatory – hitting farms of equal size and payment to a sharply different extent. They will reverse needed structural change.

• Thesetwoproposalswillcreatemassivebureaucracyfortheaffectedfarms.• Theideaforlessfavouredareasofferchangeforthesakeofitbutnopurpo-

sive development of policy to help these areas develop their potential.

Overallthis isadisappointingsetofproposals. Considerableworkisnowre-quired as the proposals are negotiated by the Council and European Parliament. It might be better to take our time over this, and delay the reform to 2015 than to rush these ideas into legislation.

Allan BUCKWELLChairman ELO Policy group

terofNewZealand&FormerNewZea-land Ambassador to the United States, Professor Paolo DE CASTRO, Chairmanof the Agricultural and Rural Develop-ment Committee of the European Par-liament , Mr. Steen RIISGAARD, President &CEO,Novozymes,Denmark,HE.N.KI-RAN KYMAR REDDY, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, India and Professor Ste-fan TANGERMANN, Emeritus Professor at the University of Göttingen and former Director for Trade and Agriculture at the OECD.

To see the full list of speakers, more information or to register your place

at the Congress, please visit www.worldagriculturalforum2011.com

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rise founDation

Water sustainability project complete!

The RisE-sponsored pilot project for sustainable water management in the leie River Basin, in Flanders has been successfully completed as the project developers – The European Water Partnership (www.ewp.eu) gear up to officially launch the European Water stewardship (EWs) system on November 24th at the Royal academy in Brussels.

In May 2011, the European Water Part-nership and the RISE Foundation formed a partnership in order to fund a pilot test for the European Water Steward-ship (EWS) system which has been pio-neered by the EWP. The EWS system is an integrative system for business and agriculture which has been developed to change the behaviour and practices of water users to help them achieve the status of sustainable water managers. The EWS is a recognised initiative of the Global Alliance for Water Stewardship and has been spearheaded by a consor-tium of leading experts from around the world with the ambition of setting basic standards for water stewardship world-wide. Concretely, the EWS consists of a standard, with referring glossary and guiding documents, and an evaluation system designed to help water users measure the sustainability of their water use and provide tried and tested solu-tions to improve and secure water avail-ability in the future. In practice, an exter-nal audit is carried out – based on site-specific indicators and local factors (and

determined with the expertise of the auditors) – to evaluate the current wa-ter resources management of farmers. Based on the results of the audit, several guidelines or response strategies are of-fered to farmers to improve their water management and ultimately to reach the sustainable water management lev-el set out in the standard.

Thepilotproject tookplace in theLeieRiver basin, an area where only 5-20% of groundwater bodies are not at risk of failing to meet the legal requirements of the Water Framework Directive. There-fore the project is a pre-emptive attempt to improve the sustainable common management of this river basin which requires that all major water users, in-cluding farmers, but also industrial ac-tors, work together and understand their

role as individual wa-ter stewards.

This pilot project, along with others across Europe, re-vealed that there is still a long way to go before we reach the goal of sustainable water management across many river basins in Europe. A number of indicators from this case study

show that improvements in water man-agement still need to be made (to read the full final project please see the RISE Foundation website www.risefounda-tion.eu).

All EWS pilot projects that have been carried out so far across Europe, have highlighted the need to improve the ad-visory services available to farmers and the outreach programmes at river ba-sin level. In this way the individual farm practices will improve and in turn have a collective impact on a larger scale. It is supposed that this could be best achieved by using existing farmers or-ganisations to organise group training and certification schemes. Therefore, a logical next step following the roll-out of the EWS on 24th November, would be to set up a training programme with suf-ficient training material for both advisors and farmers to be able to implement the feedback coming from the EWS evalu-ations. RISE plans to actively work with the EWS to help develop this next stage of the project and looks forward to con-tinuing its fruitful partnership with them!

Alison BOYES,RISE Foundation

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Biodiversity 2020: the priorities

The intergroup on sustainable Hunting and Biodiversity through ElO impulsion invited MEPs to de-bate ahead of the European Parlia-ment draft and Own-initiative Re-port on the Biodiversity strategy, proposing its own recommenda-tions to the commission.

In June the European Council endorsed the EU Biodiversity Strategy 20201, as presented by the Commission Commu-nication2 in May. There are six main tar-gets, and 20 actions to help Europe to achieve its aim. The targets include: full implementation of EU nature legislation to protect biodiversity, better protection for ecosystems, and more use of green infrastructure, more sustainable agricul-ture and forestry, better management of fish stocks, tighter controls on invasive alien species and a bigger EU contribu-tion to averting global biodiversity loss.

These pivotal EU activities catalysed this unprecedented conference through a shared commitment to nature and the immediate necessity to clarify priorities together in a balanced and integrated movement for biodiversity.

This conference gathered European landmanagers and hunters through ELOandFACE,theirkeypartnersaswellas national representatives from these groups, to create a meaningful discus-sion on the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 and together agree on concrete actions. Under the patronage of MEPs Véronique MATHIEU and Giancarlo SCOTTà, high-levelspeakersfromBirdLifeInternation-al,WWF,ELO,andFACEhighlightedtheirpriorities within the Strategy and joined the European Commission’s Director General for the Environment, Karl FALK-ENBERG and MEPs in opening the dis-cussion.

Mark THOMASIN-FOSTER, Honorary PresidentofELO,explainedthatwearefacing complex demographic, climat-ic, ecological and economic challeng-es which pressure our environment. EU farms and foresters as multiple pub-lic goods providers are able to face these pressures. Indeed, EU land man-agers can save EU biodiversity, but the EU must adopt significant policies and give them the right tools. Angus MID-DLETON, FACE’s Chief Executive, added

that hunters want nature to enjoy wild-life for hunting; in other words they rely entirely on biodiversity. In the same di-rection,BirdLifeEurope’sDirectorAnge-lo CASERTA underlined that ambitious conservation action is needed in Eu-rope, not just to achieve the EU’s 2020 target, but also for the sake of its citizens and its economy. Finally, WWF’s Alberto ARROyO stressed the economic aspects explaining that the ongoing EU budget debate is a unique opportunity to en-sure maximum synergies and benefits for people, nature and our economy.

TheupcomingconferencethatELOandMEP Véronique MATHIEU are organizing on Europe’s Biodiversity on the 1st De-cember in Brussels at the European Par-liament will probably go a step further and will identify in depth what could be the concrete solutions and financial means to implement the 2020 Biodiver-sity targets. We are looking forward to meeting all the stakeholders, experts, politicians,NGO’sandcitizensforthisim-portant event in order to send a mean-ingful message.

Delphine DUPEUX , ELO

1 European Council endorsement of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st11/st11978.en11.pdf

2 Commission Communication COM(2011) 244 final http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st09/st09658.en11.pdf

New possibilities in collaboration between CIC and ELO

Conservation through wise use – this is the common denomina-tor of the International Council for

Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) and the European Landowners’ Organ-isation(ELO),whichrecentlystartedcol-

laboration.

The liaison has a strong foundation as the two organisations share not only part of their vision but also overlap con-siderably in their membership. ELO’sSecretary General, Thierry de l’Escaille, addressed the CIC General Assembly at its opening in Saint Petersburg, Russia in May of this year, where he pointed out

the strong potential for the collabora-tion between the two organizations. The first concrete field of collaboration has been emerging over the last two years through the development of the ELOWildlife Estates project and CIC Division Coordinator Kristóf Hecker attended the recentplenarysessionof theELOWild-life Estates on 6-8 of September. With the Wildlife Estates project, ELOalong with key partners, such as the Eu-ropean Commission, the CIC and FACE, promotes the synergies between re-sponsible land management and sus-tainable wildlife use. The main objective is to facilitate a label, both flexible andreproducible for so called “exemplary Wildlife Territories” in Europe.

CIC’s presence at the recent plenary session of the project was appreciated and some national delegates were very much interested in the cooperation of landowners with the CIC Delegations on national level. The CIC is unique in its di-versity, uniting States, Universities, orga-nizations engaged in hunting, as well as private individuals, scientific experts and corporate entities as members from 84

countries and it would be desirable to achieve that next to individual mem-bership in CIC, private landowners could join the CIC through their national asso-ciations as members, for private land-owners represent a very strong and in-dispensible force, practising and defend-ing over centuries and family genera-tions sustainable wildlife management. Supported by European landowners, the CIC could even more efficiently rep-resent and defend the right of sustain-able use of natural resources in all inter-national fora, where it is a strong player.

In turn, CIC Members, who are estate owners, are encouraged to apply for the Wildlife Estates label. This could strengthen the alliance and contribute to practical efforts in favour of the sus-tainable use of wildlife resources.

Tamas MARGHESCU, CIC Director general

www.cic-wildlife.orgwww.wildlife-estates.eu 9

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In the beginning of September, in recognition of the International Year of Forests 2011, MEPs Riikka MAN-

NER, Luis Manuel CAPOULAS SANTOSandGaston FRANCOhosted aweek ofevents in the European Parliament that showcased the most remarkable values,

goods and services that forests and re-lated sectors deliver to society. This “Forestry week” started with the opening of an exhibition with different forest products varied from responsible resource stewardship and supply of sol-id wood products and non-wood prod-ucts, from packaging to ground-break-ing materials, like food additives and hi-tech chemicals, via innovative wood and cork architecture construction, the European forest sector’s contribution to the bio-economy is far-reaching.

This event was complemented with the “2011 The International Year of Forests – European and Global Forests – Which way for the future?” that brought togeth-

er speakers such as the Commissioner Janez POTOČNIK, H.S.H. Prince AlbertII, Franz FISHLER (Chairmanof the RISEFoundation), among many others.It was concluded that further efforts should be made to achieve and main-tain a balance between the multiple benefits of forests, particularly the bal-ance between conservation and the use of forests when facing of the unprece-dented economic and food crises.

This balance assumes higher relevance when considering the challenges ahead. Inhisspeech,commissionerPOTOČNIKsaid that a switch to sustainability under a changing climate can only be made if forest owners receive enough fund-ing for the services they provide. The EC is participating in initiatives to protect forests, such as the commission Green Paper on forest protection and infor-mation in the EU: preparing forests for climate change.

In fact, enhanced information and knowledge sharing is crucial for a common and shared understanding of the issues, for a coherent approach of the challenges at stake and in order to make efficient decisions. More than that, achieving sustainability requires strengthening cooperation, namely the cooperation of existing frameworks dedicated to forestry and forest-based industry, having in mind that the main goal of long-term forest planning is more than forest protection, is sustain-able multifunctional management.

The ending of this event was marked with a workshop on the “The forest sector’s contribution to the Euro-pean bio-economy”, highlighting the vital role that Europe’s forests and forest products industries play in contributing to the overall 2020 objective of the Eu-ropean Union of achieving a sustainable bio-economy.

Ana ROCHA , ELO

“Forestry week” in the EP highlights the importance of the sector for achieving a sustainable bio-economy

AsstatedbyGastonFRANCO,chairofthe“Forest-ry” Group of the EP Intergroup “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development” dur-

ing the September conference European and glob-al forests- which way for the future?: “Livelihoods of1.6 billion people depend on forests. Protecting and managing the world’s forests in a sustainable manner should be recognized and valued. It is estimated that deforestation and forest degradation are likely costing the global economy between EUR 1.75 and EUR 3 tril-lion a year, which is more than the losses of the recent and ongoing financial cri-sis. Urgent action is needed to protect forest values that sustain local livelihoods in the face of climate change”.

ELOwelcomedthetopicsdiscussedduringthiseventandhighlightsthatwhiledeforestation may not be a major concern for European forests; the challenges posed by climate change are real and increasing. EU policies on forest protection are needed as long as it doesn’t constrain their utilisation, coming at the expense of the great benefits they bring to society. Therefore the sustainable manage-ment of forests should be promoted through more holistic policy coordination, integrating both utilisation and protection of forests.

During the international year of Forests, the Commission lunched a Review of the EU Forestry Strategy, which should contribute substantially to the current EU goals such as green growth, biodiversity protection and climate change mitiga-tion.TheELOisinvolvedindiscussionsforthenewEUForestryStrategy.

ELOhasactivelyparticipatedinclimatechangediscussionsinCopenhagen,andwill closely follow the continuation of the negotiations in Durban, South Africa, aswellastheRio+20EarthSummitwherewillbediscussedtheinteractionsbe-tween green economy and forest management.

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The conference was opened by Ro-mana JORDANCIZELJ –MEP andMember of the Committee on In-

dustry, Research and Energy in the Eu-ropean Parliament who explored on the current situation of renewable energy use in the European Union

The European Union has agreed to cover 20% of its total energy consumption by 2020 using renewable sources. Biomass (wood and plants) is already doing the most of it, besides solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy. Biomass and waste cover 68 % of total renewable energy production. Over 52% is coming fromwood wastes.

“Bioenergy planning in European regions” conference.

GiulioVOLPI, Renewable EnergyUnit atDG Energy, focused in his presentation on the role of biomass in the EU’s ener-gy strategy for 2020 and beyond. He ex-plainedthattheMemberStateshadflex-ibility for achieving its targets by 2020. He said that biomass covered over ten per-cent of EU total final energy consump-tion and most of it was used for heating. Regarding the sustainability of solid and gaseous biomass, he explained that the EU had published a report on this issue in February 2010. However, mandatory criteria were left at the discretion of the Member States. He added that harmo-nization had been recommended and a further report was expected by the end

of 2011. There is an ongoing consulta-tion with various stakeholders including industry, forest owners, academia and NGOsonbiomasssustainability.Hecon-cluded that it would be necessary to de-fine a long term policy framework – 2050 energy road map.

Brian MEANEY, Rapporteur on bio-en-ergy at the Committee of the Regions, explored on the role of regions in ener-gy planning. He commented: «It is im-portant to explore integrated bio-ener-gy partnerships for cities and regions -in support of the EU2020 strategy and be-yond, but also in support of local sustain-able development.» .Emilio FONT DE MORA, Project Officer,ExecutiveAgencyforCompetitiveness&Innovation (EACI), made a brief overview of bioenergy projects supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. He explained that this programme is managed by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation as well as other programmes such as eco-inno-vation and Marco Polo. The aim of these programmes is to convert policies into actions. He said that there was a budget of €730 million for the period from 2007-13. He concluded by presenting the syn-ergy between the three European pro-jects: BEn, BioEnerGis and MAKE-IT-BE.

These projects started from the same call and all three aimed to support devel-opment of new sustainable bioenergy plants by analysing the availability and demand of biomass at the regional scale. Altogether the projects cover seven Eu-ropean countries embracing several re-gions and municipalities. Their approach is based on enhancing stakeholders´ net-works as well as by developing meth-odologies and tools helping local stake-holders in bioenergy planning. Such en-ergy initiatives will bring reduced emis-sions, new jobs and will be a first step in the development of the new green economy with bioenergy becoming a major element. In order to enhance the synergy among the three projects, sever-

On the 5th October 2011, the Joint Final conference of three

European Projects BEn, BioEnerGis and MaKE-iT-BE was held in

Brussels. Under the title “Bioenergy planning in European regions”,

the event presented the conclusions of the three projects and

practical experience from European regions in defining practical

experience in defining methodologies for biomass potential and

heat-demand assessments, and tools and local actions for

development of production of energy from biomass.

maKe it be

13

al common meetings were co-organised to exchange information and achieve-ments.

The project co-ordinator of the BEn-pro-ject Simone KRAUSE explained: «The bio-energy use among regions requires, not only enhanced cooperation but also re-liable and available trans regional tools. Therefore, we have developed a bio-mass register in the form of a map ap-plication incorporating relevant biomass data which is available for the public. The

use of the tool has been tested within four project regions: Umbria in Italy, Gos-tyninLakeDistrict inPoland,NorthEastEngland in the United Kingdom and Em-scher-LippeRegioninGermany.Thereg-ister is a web-based GIS tool which allows the user to navigate through the biomass sector and can provide a realistic picture of the current bioenergy situation.

BioEnerGis commented, through the words of the coordinator Alessandro CHIESA (CESTEC): «Within our project we

decided to support sustainable biomass exploitation by developing BIOPOLE, aGISbasedDecisionSupportSystem.Ouraim was to map the biomass (from for-estry, agricultural residues, wastes and sludge) exploitable for energy purpose, focusing on district heating systems and cogeneration plants. Our tool combin-ing supply and demand-side data, leg-islation, technological and financial op-tions has been tested in four regions: LombardyinItaly,NorthernIrelandintheUnited Kingdom, Slovenia and Wallonia in Belgium.»

The MAKE-IT-BE project, aimed to deliv-er agendas for bio-energy promotion in four EU Regions (Austria, Italy, Slovenia and UK). In the context of the project de-cision-making tools and methodologies were developed to assist regions exten-sively in identifying, evaluating and ini-tiating regional partnerships for bio-en-ergychains.TheEuropeanLandowners´Organization has been involved in theproject from its very beginning and was responsible for the analysis of the best practices in the European Union, com-munication and dissemination. The coor-dinatoroftheproject,MariaGraziaTOM-MASINI from Centro Ricerche Produzio-ni Vegetali concluded: «Biomass has be-come a significant and reliable renewa-ble energy source. It is inherently a local fuel choice and there are significant sup-ply chain challenges in making this form of energy available to local communities.

We are proud to have developed practi-cal guidance to support the role-out of bioenergy partnerships».

Barbora BUCKOVA , ELO

The presentations and videos are available on the project website

http://www.makeitbe.eu/

maKe it be

14

YFCS General Assembly 2011: Looking ahead

According to the new structure, Robert de l’ESCAILLE (BE) hasbeen elected president; Franc-

esco KINSKy dal BORGO (CZ/IT), cur-rentlya full-timeemployeeattheELO’sheadquarters in Brussels, is the new sec-retarygeneral;GuydellaFAILLE(BE),Wil-liam HILLGARTH (UK/IT) and EmanueleVISCONTI (IT) will now serve as boardmembers. With an average age of twen-ty-three, these new and young board members have now taken the lead of the organization. Frans von CHRIS-MAR (NL) and Alexander SCHÖNBURG-HARTENSTEIN(Ö/DE) will stay on theboard for an additional year in order to make the transition working as smooth as possible.

In order to take part in the programme of the General Assembly 2011, which developed itself between Stolberg/Harz and Bisdorf, nearly forty people, both current and perspective members, ar-rivedintheOldSaxonyregionofGerma-ny. The meeting opened on the morning of Friday 9th September with a guided tour of the Timura Wood Manufacture, a local company that employs new pat-ents to modify the structure of the wood and transform European “soft” timber into longer lasting timber. Then, the vis-it continued to the overlooking Rottle-berode’s production site of Ante-Holz, a family run business, which is one of the largest sawmill companies working in Germany and Poland. After a lunch un-der the hunting lodge of Josephskreuz, a huge steel-made double cross dating from the end of the 19th century and lo-cated in the Stolberg family’s estate, and after a walk through the contiguous for-est,guidedbyChiefForesterIng.THIELE,the group reached the castle of Stolberg, where the assembly and the conference could finally begin.

The main topic has been the restora-tion project of the castle of Stolberg, now owned by the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz (German Foundation for Landmark Protection). Matthias WAG-NER, the architect that is responsible for the project, illustrated the huge finan-cial effort that has been put in place by the foundation in order to restore the

castle of Stolberg to its original beauty. Indeed, the castle had been unlawful-ly seized by the Soviet regime in 1945, when the Eastern part of Germany came under its control following the Yalta Conference. Since then, the castle suf-fered from total lack of maintenance un-til the early 2000’s, when the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz acquired it from the State–which, after the fall of the Ber-lin Wall, acknowledged the unlawful sei-zure brought forward by the communist regime and failed to return the proper-ty to its original and legitimate owners- and began the restoration project.

After a visit of the castle, the conference continued with a speech by Moritz von der HEYDTE, expert in continental furni-tureatSotheby’sinLondon,whotalkedabout “The European art market: Main tendencies and role of private collec-tors”. Then, Maité de BONCOURT, yFCSmember and research fellow at the In-stitut Français des Relations Internation-ales (IFRI, Paris), gave a presentation on

“Policies and tendencies for the renew-able energies at the European level”. The speeches preceded the General Assem-bly, which approved the new manage-ment structure, while at the same time expressing its deepest gratitude to: Ga-brieldel’ESCAILLE,whohadbeenserv-ing as president of YFCS since its foun-dation; the outgoing board members, LuigiGALIMBERTI FAUSSONE, SebastianHILLGARTH, Christoph STOLBERG and

change and transmission are two key concepts, which make up the ground for many YFcs’s activities and discussions. Not wanting to sepa-rate theory from practice, on the occasion of the General assembly 2011, the YFcs’s managing board has undergone the first radical restructuring since the association has been founded in 2006.

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Thibault d’URSEL; Robin du PARC LOC-MARIA, co-founder of YFCS and its first SecretaryGeneral;AnaROCHA,whohadbeen providing invaluable help with all the organizational matters. The opening day finished with a gala dinner, hosted at the house “Kleine Schloß” by Fürst und FürstinzuSTOLBERG-STOLBERG.

Onthefollowingday,thegroupleftStol-berg/Harz for Bisdorf, near the industrial town of Wolfsburg, where Günther Graf von der SCHULENBURGwelcomed theYoung Friends at his estate and invited them to an exciting off-road driving ex-perience, sponsored by Volkswagen. In the afternoon Graf von der SCHULEN-BURG,withtheassistanceofELO’sPhil-ip MILLER-AICHHOLZ, presented hisexperience and efforts that made his estate the first in Germany to be grant-edtheEuropean“WildlifeEstatesLabel”.This seminal ELO’s project, whichyFCSstrongly supports, aims at: fostering the collaboration between the private and public sectors to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity; pushing the estates to promote, implement and share con-temporary best practices in game and wildlife management and to improve the political and public understanding and perception of private estate man-agement, and what they deliver in terms of economic and other public benefits. After the presentation, the group went for a visit of the estate, focusing on the

initiatives taken by the management for the preservation and increase of biodi-versity (e.g. a Syngenta’s sponsored pro-ject, which devoted more than fourteen hectaresoflandtoaspecificflowercul-tivation in order to create a favourable habitat for the reproduction of bees and wild insects).The intense but rewarding two-day programme ended with an in-formal dinner, hosted at Bisdorf’s former horse stables by Graf und Gräfin von der SCHULENBURG.

In conclusion, the General Assembly 2011 has been a great opportunity for all the members that attended it. A bal-anced mix between conviviality and pro-fessionalism has been reached thanks to the effort of YFCS’s former vice-pres-

ident,ChristophSTOLBERG,whoputto-gether an excellent programme. Howev-er, most of the credit goes to Fürst und Fürstin zu STOLBERG-STOLBERG and toGrafundGräfinvonderSCHULENBURG,who hosted the Young Friends with the utmost passion, interest and generos-ity. They opened their houses, as well as their hearts, to the new generations of future landowners, estate managers and agricultural and environmental profes-sionals, who are all represented by YFCS and its members.

Luigi GALIMBERTI FAUSSONE di GERMAGNANO

Former YFCS Board Member

Yfcs

16CountrySide

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8-9 November, BrusselsConference“CombatingfoodwasteintheEU”,keynoteaddressbyJanezPOTOCNIK,EuropeanCommis-sioner for the Environmenthttp://eufoodwaste.agraevents.com/

9th of November, Brussels European Conference “Participation of private users in Natura 2000 management”, followed by the visit in the field - http://www.3water.eu/

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28th November – 1st December, BrusselsWAF Congress: Rethinking Agriculture to sustain a growing global populationwww.worldagriculturalforum2011.com

1st of December, European Parliament, BrusselsEuropean Biodiversity Conference “The 2020 Biodiversity strategy: a public-private partnership for sustain-ableresourceuse”;withtheparticipationofPaolodeCASTRO,ChairoftheCommitteeonAgricultureandRural Development, and Véronique MATHIEU, President of the Intergroup on Sustainable Hunting, Biodiver-sity, Countryside Activities, Agriculture and Forestrywww.elo.org

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27th of March 2012, Brussels5th Forum for the Future of Agriculture - www.forumforagriculture.com

This book addresses the issues and methods involved in governing risks posed by geneti-cally modified (GM) agriculture. It examines the evolution of policies intended to ensure the safety of GM crops and food products in the United States and Europe and the regu-latory approaches and other social controls em¬ployed to protect human health, the environment, conventional farming and foods, and the interests and rights of consumers.

Discussion encompasses the cultural, political, and economic forces that shape the de-sign and application of the methods of risk governance, as well as other contextual featuressuchastheinfluenceofmultina¬tionalcompaniesseekingacceptanceoftheirGMventures.Thisdiscussionalsoexaminestheinfluenceofthedynamicpublicdiscoursefosteredbyprogressive concepts of risk governance and the approaches taken to meet its demands for transparency, public participation, and appropriateconsiderationofpublicperceptionsandvaluesdespiteconflictingviewsofexperts.

It explores the contrasting approaches taken by the US and the European Union to govern the risks of GM agriculture and foods; il-luminatestheevolutionofUSandEuropeanregulatoryprogramsgoverningGMagricultureandfoodsandaddressestheinfluenceof public discourse on the design and implementation of public policies and regulations.

D I A R Y D A T E S 2 0 1 1

Governing Risk in GM Agriculture Michael BARAM, Boston University School of Law Mathilde BOURRIER, University of Geneva

978-1-107-00147-3

Syngenta

Brussels Office

Avenue Louise, 240B – 1050 Brussels

Tel : +32.2.642 2727Fax : +32.2.642 2720