The fifth online meeting of the Team of Specialists of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Boreal Forests was held on March 2, 2022. Interpretation services were provided in English and Russian. About 30 representatives of boreal countries and international organizations attended the event. Senior researcher of the Northern Research Institute of Forestry (SevNIIILH), Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, A.S. Ilintsev took part in this event, as part of the delegation of the Federal Forestry Agency.

Liliana Annovazi-Jakab, Chief of the UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section, welcomed the participants of the meeting and wished them fruitful work.

1. Work Plan 2021-2022;
2. Ministerial Meeting and Action Plan;
3. Webinar series 2022;
4. Communications notes prepared by Russian Federation;
5. Review of the IBFRA Insight Report;
6. Election of officers.

The author of the draft, Mr. Aleksey Ilintsev told the participants of the meeting about the readiness of the communication note on the definition of boreal forests. In his speech, he noted that the communication note has passed several steps of peer review and is ready for publication. The members of the Team of Specialists positively assessed these materials and invited the Secretariat to help improve the communication note. The Secretariat supported these proposals for professional writing, editing, and layouting of the notes, but asked the Team of Specialists to come up with concrete policy questions to be addressed in the communication note.

The members of the Team of Specialists indicated that the next meeting could be held at the of summer 2022. The Secretariat took note of this proposal and will develop the agenda together with the co-chairs. The meeting format (virtual, in-person) will be established closer to the date.

Agenda - 5th meeting of the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Boreal Forests : https://unece.org/forestry-timber/documents/2022/03/agendas/agenda-5th-meeting-tos-boreal-forests

Information on the work of the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Boreal Forests can be found here: https://unece.org/forests/team-specialists-boreal-forests