The third SOSIN meeting took place at the University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen in 12-13. 3.2013.

Participants in Copenhagen meeting: Frank S. Jensen (Denmark), Kerli Karoles (Estonia), Tuija Sievänen and Marjo Neuvonen (Finland), Natalia Demidova and Nadezhda Demina (Northwest Russia), Odd-Inge Vistad (Norway), Peter Fredman (Sweden).

Guests: Arne Arneberger, BOKU, Austria; Mika Mustonen, EFINord, Copenhagen; Hubert Inheizer (European Forest Institute, Germany); Cigdem Adem (European Environment Agency, Copenhagen).

Sustainable development is now established as a long-term goal for most natural resources related policies. Within the forestry sector, sustainability has been a core principle since the early days of scientific enquiry, although its definition has evolved from a narrow focus on sustained yield to a broader understanding of the diverse benefits forests provide to society. At the first Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), held in Helsinki in 1993, sustainable forest management was defined as “the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.” (Helsinki Resolution H1, www.mcpfe.org).

Sustainable recreational use of forests and other natural resources clearly involves all three dimension of sustainability. The social values of forests, such as those associated with recreation, are growing in importance in North European countries. It is therefore important to strengthen the role of these issues in forestry and forest management.

Nadezhda Demina, participant of the Seminar

The interior of the new building of the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Natural Science

Near Monument G.H. Andersen

First flowers in Copenhagen

Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus) in the botanic collection of the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Natural Science