Istanbul: The Istanbul Forest Innovation Week (IFIW) concluded Friday with discussions and panels on forest restoration, innovation in forestry, bioeconomy applications, and integrated fire management. The five-day meeting, which began Monday, brought together representatives from 75 countries, 30 international organizations, and more than 400 experts.
According to Anadolu Agency, during the closing session of the European Forestry Commission (EFC), a new president and vice-presidents were elected. The presidency went to a representative from Slovakia, while Switzerland and the United States were elected as vice presidents. The next session of the EFC will be held in Rome in 2027.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forestry Specialist Rebecca Tavani introduced the organization’s Open Foris initiative and its associated toolkit, explaining that FAO has been providing training in this field for the past 15 years. Open Foris is an open-source software initiative that provides analysis and reporting in areas such as activity monitoring, biodiversity, and forest inventories.
Predrag Jovic, forestry portfolio officer at the FAO Belgrade Project Office, explained FAO’s National Forest Inventories (NFI) approach, associated phases, and how data is collected within the system. He said the recently launched third phase of the NFI aims to ensure continuous and up-to-date monitoring by collecting new data each year, enabling early detection of forest fires and other risks.
Ebba Henning Planck, head of the Forest Europe Liaison Unit in Sweden, stated that Forest Europe’s ‘data-driven decision-making’ approach is based on data collection and monitoring, adding that the goal is to create comparable, reliable, and high-quality data over time and across countries. Keith Anderson, senior advisor at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, noted that his agency has digitized forest data reporting processes, and data is now transferred directly, digitally, and instantly between institutions.
Dr. Johannes Schumacher, researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research, discussed the EU-funded MoniFun project, which uses a federated learning approach that enables modeling without data sharing between countries. The MoniFun project aims to develop a harmonized European Forest Multifunctionality Monitoring System to support policy makers and stakeholders.
FAO Natural Resources Specialist Evetta Zenina spoke about understanding carbon markets, integrating them into national strategies, and ways to develop countries’ institutional capacity. Ekrem Yazici, secretary general of the FAO’s European Forestry Commission (EFC), highlighted work carried out as part of IFIW, focusing on preparing the Turkish forestry sector for the European Green Deal process and the upcoming European Deforestation Regulation.
Following the closing session, Yazici told Anadolu that the 43rd session of the EFC also covered topics such as the circular economy, youth and innovation, timber construction, forest monitoring, and innovation in data collection. He stressed that Trkiye made significant investments throughout the week as part of IFIW, with notable contributions from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the General Directorate of Forestry.
Istanbul Forest Innovation Week was organized by the Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Ministry’s General Directorate of Forestry in cooperation with the UN Forest Forum (UNFF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization. It serves as an important platform to shape the future of global forestry policies. Anadolu is the global communication partner of Istanbul Forest Innovation Week (IFIW) 2025.