Metla´s international activities 2008

Anne Luhtala

The most important manifestations of international activities at Metla are common research projects, researcher networks, publications in international series and researcher exchange. Metla's expertise is also utilised in decision-making required in international processes. Metla's international activities continued at an energetic pace in 2008.

The geographical focus of Metla's international cooperation is in Europe . The situation is reflected by the fact that more than 90% of the external funding for international projects comes from the European Union. In 2008, there were thirty ongoing European Union-funded research projects at Metla, with the majority obtaining their funding from the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research and technological development.

Of programmes furthering international networking, the most important for Metla is COST , with about twenty Metla researchers and professors working in its projects and administrative organs. The COST 43 project led by Metla, aiming to standardise forest inventory practices in Europe , ended during the year.

Metla's Nordic research cooperation has long traditions, and the collaboration is supported at strategic level by the annual meeting of the directors of the Nordic forest research institutes. The most important support for collaboration is provided by the Nordic Forest Research Cooperation Committee SNS (Samarbetsnämnden Skogsforskning), the secretariat of which is located at Metla until 2009. SNS has five virtual top research clusters (Center for Advanced Research - CAR ), one of which, the forest pathology-related PATHCAR is coordinated at Metla. In 2008, SNS approved Metla's proposal for a new three-year pan-Nordic research project about satellite-based mapping of growing seasons in Fennoscandia and north-western Russia . SNS funding was also granted to five other Metla researchers for the promotion of pan-Nordic networking. Nordic forest cooperation increasingly also includes partners from Russia and the Baltic countries.

Of the Baltic countries, Metla has most collaboration with Estonia . In 2008, the EU agreed to fund a collaborative project under which Metla exports its know-how in greenhouse gas quantification to Estonia . With Russia , Metla is involved in around ten research and development projects, the Finnish funding providers for which alongside Metla are the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Academy of Finland , Tekes, as well as individual companies and regional Employment and Economic Development Centres.

In recent years, Metla has developed its collaboration with Asian countries, and as one of its manifestations, the Director General of Metla appeared as a keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) in the autumn of 2008. Of the Asian countries, particularly the cooperation with Japan was visibly strengthened. Led by the Director General, the five-strong delegation from Metla took part in the seminar held in Japan in the spring of 2008, and later in the autumn Metla participated in the joint seminar organised in Finland by Finnish universities and Hokkaido University . Moreover, a Metla professor spent four months as a visiting researcher at the University of Hyogo at the turn of the years 2008-2009. One of the highlights of the Japan collaboration was the visit to Metla of the President of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) and his party, in the autumn of 2008. FFPRI is the premier forest research organisation in Japan , and Metla is the first European forest research institute to have signed a cooperation agreement with FFPRI. At the time of the FFPRI visit, it was decided that a scientific seminar on topics that are of interest to both organisations would be organised in alternate years in Japan and in Finland .

The three-year EU project coordinated by Metla researching into the cultivation of local tree species in East Africa ended in 2008, but the intention is to continue the project with a new team. Metla also worked to strengthen its activities in other developing countries. CATIE, the forest research organisation in Costa Rica , represents Latin American countries, and after year-long negotiations Metla and CATIE submitted a joint proposal to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, aiming to develop the know-how and structures in forest research in the target countries. A similar proposal for developing management of forest know-how was also under preparation with Kenyan forest research organisations. A third proposal for collaboration, prepared in cooperation with a university, concerns development of forest resources information technology in Vietnam and Nepal .

A number of foreign visiting researchers and more than 50 foreign trainees worked at Metla in 2008. Metla also received numerous foreign delegations, among them the Minister of Agriculture of Greece, the Research Director of ICRAF, the Chief of Research of the US Forest Service, and the Director of the Croatian Forest Research Institute. A collaboration agreement was drawn up with the Croatian Forest Research Institute Sumarski Institut, constituting a concrete step from Metla towards the development of cooperation in the direction of the Balkans.

Metla organised several international conferences in Finland in 2008, one of the most important being the conference of leading experts in forest criteria and indicators, held at the Joensuu unit. One of the largest conferences in terms of participant numbers, in the organisation of which Metla was involved, was the seminar related to the recreational use of forests in Hämeenlinna.

Metla researchers published over two hundred publications in internationally refereed series, as well as made presentations at international seminars and conferences. Important events for forest research organised abroad in 2008 included the seminar organised by FAO, IUFRO and SLU in August in Sweden , around the topic of the adaptation of forests to climate change. A Metla professor was the principal speaker at the seminar, and a number of Metla researchers took part in both the event and the congress publication. The European Forest Week (EFW) was organised by the European Commission, FAO, UNECE and MCPFE for the first time in October in Rome . In this event, too, Metla was prominent both in the exhibition department and as session organiser.

Metla's international Scientific Advisory Board ( SAB ) met in May 2008. The former SAB members come from Sweden , Canada , Russia , France and the United States.

Metla researchers provide support to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in international processes by preparing and commenting on statements and reports and by participating as Finland 's representatives in international conferences, organised by e.g. the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP), the EU Standing Forestry Committee, the

UNFCCC Secretariat, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). Through the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), Metla coordinated three global projects which organised international events and conferences in 2008. Under IUFRO operates also the panel, created at the joint initiative of the UN climate forum Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), which during the year worked on the drafting of an assessment report on the adaptation of forests to climate change. The panel, consisting of international top level experts, worked under the leadership of a Metla professor and published its report in the spring of 2009.