The programme included a high-level discussion on challenges and opportunities in increasing forest cover in Greece, a session on fostering biodiversity and mitigating climate change, and a session highlighting successful initiatives in Greece that contribute to the EU’s 3 Billion Trees Pledge and ecological objectives.
Presentations’ order:
- Tree Planting and reforestation: selected issues
Stavros Tsilikounas, General Directorate of Forests and Forest Environment, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Greece - The concept of productive reforestation
Prof. Alexandros Papachatzis – Professor of “Arboriculture”, Head of Agricultural- Agrotechnology Department, University of Thessaly - Challenges for tree planting with ecological objectives/forest restoration
Marta Ballesteros – Milieu Consulting - Financing Guide
Panagiota Pavlou – Milieu Consulting - The role of the Green Fund on Forestry Financing – Protection and Management of Forest Ecosystems
Vassilios Bodzorlos Forester – Environmentalist (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.)
Nature & Biodiversity Expert – Project Manager LIFE EL BIOS - Exchange of best practices for tree planting initiatives in Greece
Panagiota Maragou – WWF Greece - Exchange of best practices for tree planting initiatives in Greece
John Iliopoulos – We4All
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The programme included a high-level session, a technical session on rewilding, natural regeneration and recovery after forest fires and a session dedicated to the organisations that reported trees in the EU counter under the EU 3 Billion Trees Pledge.
Thematic session:
Rewilding forests (natural regeneration/restoration of degraded forest ecosystems)
- Martin Jentzen, Ekoskog (Sweden)
- Areti Christodoulou – Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment (Cyprus)
Reforestation after fires/disturbances in light of adaptation to climate change
- Sonia Roig, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)
Success stories from pledgers (presentations’ order)
- Flemish Government – Forest Alliance
- ForestaMi – Comune di Milano
- Križevci city
- Wallonia Region
- EcoTree
- Etifor S.r.l.
- Folia Project
- Land Life
- Polyhedra Labs gUG
- Reforest’Action
- Treedom
- Asociația Land Art
- Laboratório da Paisagem
- Life Terra foundation
- Nadace Partnerstvi
- Plant for the Planet
- Regala un Albero (a division of Infinity Edge S.r.l.)
- WE4ALL
Download the Summary report.
The Commission will present the 3 billion trees pledge, its criteria and purpose in the context of the current state of forests in the EU and give an overview of the initiative. The new Financing Guide will be presented and discussed. In addition, the necessary steps to contribute to the EU Tree Counter, which is part of the EU pledge, will be explained. There will also be short presentations from registered organisations and advice for potential new registrants.
- Agenda
- Milieu Consulting, Introduction – Marta Ballesteros
- European Commission – Benedicte Blaudeau, Marco Onida, Adrian Tistan
- Flemish Government – Bert Vanholen
- Milieu Consulting, The Financing Guide – Agnieszka Markowska
- Financing Guide
The Commission introduced and explained the EU guidelines on Biodiversity-Friendly Afforestation, Reforestation and Tree Planting it had recently published. Through both active planting and natural regeneration, these guidelines constitute one of the key milestones to implement the 3 billion additional trees pledge of the EU by 2030. They contain practical recommendations and references to case studies.
- Agenda
- Milieu Consulting (Introduction)– Marta Ballesteros
- European Commission – Marco Onida
- Reforest’Action – Thibaud Poulain
- Bosque Metropolitano Madrid Presentation – Raquel Bravo Rubio
- Greek Agroforestry Network – Vasilios Papanastasis
The purpose of the webinar was to introduce the EU pledge to the relevant stakeholders, providing all the necessary information related to the initiative and discussing key issues related to the planting of trees and the pledge itself. The webinar included presentations from the European Commission (DG ENV), the Milieu Consulting research team supporting the Pledge implementation and interventions from selected stakeholders. The event also gave the opportunity to present and discuss the answers to key questions received through the online survey.
- Agenda
- Milieu Consulting (Introduction)– Marta Ballesteros
- European Commission – Marco Onida, Adrian Tistan, Sandra Steinbruck
- Land Life – Rebekah Braswell
- Municipality of Gothenburg – Johan Rehngren
- Podkarpackie Region – Maciej Pietrucha
- Oficina Española de Cambio Climático (OECC)– Marta Hernández de la Cruz
- Plant for the Planet – Jordi Juanos
- Slovenia Forest Service – Andrej Breznikar