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Information note - A14 Review Group Action Report Biodiversity and Conservation-related Forestry ResearchFRCC hosted a workshop on Biodiversity Conservation in September 1998 at English Nature's HQ in Peterborough. This information note reports on the workshop and its recommendations and provides the FRCC's response to them. PrefaceOne of the achievements of the Rio Summit was to get away from the old fashioned notions of forestry versus the environment and to promote instead the concept of sustainable forest management. Sustainable forestry should be seen as a means of obtaining environmental and social benefits as well as benefits for society through economic progress. In recent years the amount of research devoted to biodiversity conservation has increased and there is an active and continuing programme to support the assimilation of conservation into forestry planning and practice. The environmental NGOs have a great interest in forest biodiversity research, both as a means of increasing biological diversity in the UK as a whole and as a targeted contribution to the conservation of nationally important and threatened species and habitats. Government research is commissioned for the purpose of supporting policy development or implementation. NGOs are concerned that the priority and specification of such research is not capable of being influenced by organisations with a particular interest in the subject. Furthermore, NGOs are themselves more and more involved in aspects of woodland management. Few voluntary organisations can afford to commit a substantial amount of funds or staff time to research, yet many rely on research commissioned by others to point to practical and policy solutions to environmental issues. The environmental NGOs therefore want to contribute more to the research priority-setting process of government departments. They believe that this process should be more interactive and transparent and that information on biodiversity research should be more accessible. The workshop was an attempt to explore ways and means by which government departments could increase accessibility to their research priority-setting processes and to the dissemination of results. I am happy to present this FRCC report which covers the proceedings of the day.
John JamesJohn James was appointed as a non-executive Forestry Commissioner in March 1998 and was previously Chief Executive of the Woodland Trust, one of the most successful conservation charities. Information note A14 | Workshop | Recommendations | Responses
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