The OptFORESTS project was present at the 5th International Forest Policy Meeting (IFPM), a biannual event that aims to explore forestry and forest-related issues through a social science and policy lens, and attracted academics and researchers from various geographical regions. The event was held from 10-12 April 2024 in Helsinki, Finland, and in this edition researcher Todora Rogelja, from the University of Padua (TESAF) and involved in OptFORESTS WP7, presented the session entitled "Forest Genetic Resources and Forest Reproductive Material at the cross-section of multiple policy domains in Europe: Example of policy transposition in selected European countries".

This presentation provided partial and preliminary results of the policy gap analysis developed by OptFORESTS WP7 (led by Laura Secco, UNIPD), as well as preliminary results of WP6 (led by Heino Konrad, BFW) on policy perceptions among nurseries in Europe.
 

Existing gaps for successful policy action

Policy gaps hinder the sustainable conservation, management and deployment of forest genetic resources and forest materials, and few studies address the transformative potential of specific policies and policy instruments to overcome policy gaps on forest genetic resources and forest materials and realise their full potential. They are often rooted (among others) in sectoral silos, low levels of knowledge and information flow, and insufficient cooperation. Initial findings suggest that, despite efforts such as EUFORGEN (2021) to ensure the conservation, management, and sustainable use of forest genetic resources, implementation and policy action remain uneven at pan-European and national levels.

Through preliminary analysis, an implicit reference to forest genetic resources (FGR) and forest reproductive material (FRM) emerged among the main gaps. As a result, the conservation, management and deployment of FGR and FRM continue to face a number of gaps, such as poor knowledge of European policies, complexity of the policy framework, poor recognition of concepts, weak horizontal coordination, poor vertical integration, insufficient funding and lack of political will.