|
Back
to Top
2.
Summary of Action Items and Decisions
Back
to Top
General
1.
BOA agreed on the value of awards for long-standing
and dedicated working group members. Laura Lara, Jacques
Trencia, and Oscar Cedeno will research options for
how to do NAFC Commission awards and/or Working Group
awards and present options at the next BOA meeting.
2.
BOA agreed to explore urban forestry, watershed and
recreation issues by developing ideas for project proposals
rather than establishing "new" working groups. Further
discussion on potential projects will be discussed at
the next BOA meeting.
3.
On carbon sequestration issues, the first step will
be to improve the technical paper on carbon sequestration
given at the NAFC meeting in St. Andrews. The BOA will
provide Sosa with contacts from the U.S. and Canada
for further work on updating the paper.
4.
At the next meeting, BOA will discuss reconvening task
force on working groups
5.
BOA (esp. Mezainis) will offer recommendations of Secretariat
candidates.
Back
to Summary
Working
Groups
1.
Chairpersons of working groups should invite FAO focal
points to regular working group meetings. BOA will consider
proposals for funding their travel to working group
meetings if needed. At a minimum, focal points should
be informed on all current activities of the working
group. Dube is responsible for giving Liza Paqueo contact
information for focal points, so that they may be added
to the mailing list.
2.
Laura Lara is responsible for communicating with Oscar
Cedeno, Fire Management, about the $25K CDN which has
been allocated to website development.
3.
Lara and Paqueo are also responsible for coordinating
with Trencia to get an updated membership list from
the Forest Genetics group.
4.
Mexico will publish latest minutes/proceedings from
the Silivculture Working Group meeting. Silviculture
working group needs to integrate some specific activities
in tropical forests.
5.
Mezainis will discuss with current Insect & Disease
Chair, Tom Sterner, formation of an "Invasive Species
Working Group" with sub-groups of Plants and Animals.
Tom Sterner would be charged with organizing the plant
group subgroup and asking for proposals/recommendations
by next meeting.
Back
to Summary
Funding
Funds
of $20k was requested and approved for Insects and Diseases
working group for the publication and distribution of
report on Mistletoes. US will fund.
Back
to Summary
Website
and Mailing List
1.
Action Items for Website:
a.
Lara will talk to Oscar Cedeno about Fire Management's
$25K dedication to website and what it's purpose will
be.
b.
Paqueo will put report on website and send e-mail
to study group chairs for comment
c.
Each liaison is in charge of making sure assigned
working groups follow consistent format, as decided
upon by BOA:
- About
Us: description on working groups- something
longer than a mission statement. Liaison officers
will be responsible for contacting working group
chairs or writing this section themselves.
- Activities:
past and recent, meeting reports, upcoming activities,
what's new?, publication and databases.
- Membership:
needs to be updated
- Photos
specific to their working group activities as well
as group photo of members (see Forest Genetics page)
- All
reports will be in English but working groups are
responsible for providing all executive summaries
in French, English, and Spanish.
- All
reports must be submitted electronically and not
as hard copies (MS Word, WordPerfect, HTML, Text
files are preferred).
- All
Photos must be scanned in at 72dpi and saved as
jpegs. Gifs are also welcome.
d.
Paqueo will add a calendar of upcoming events and
meetings to site.
e.
Next meeting, BOA will decide on how to organize their
site on the NAFC page.
2.
Action Items for Mailing List:
a.
Send new information (reports, updates, etc) to entire
mailing list as way of sharing information and gaining
more visibility for NAFC and activities.
b.
Paqueo will update membership list on NAFC website.
3.
The progress report of the FAO's consultant, Sander
Dankelman, "International Dialogue on Forestry: FAO
Statutory Bodies on the Internet," was distributed to
participants for their information and reactions, and
to continue efforts to harmonize approaches.
Back
to Summary
Upcoming
Events and Meetings
- Silviculture
and Forest Genetics: joint meeting in April 2001,
Puerto Rico
- Atmospheric
Change: November, 2001 in Monterrey, Mexico
-
Fire Management: October 15-19, 2001 in Cancun, Mexico
-
Insects and Diseases: September 2001 in San Francisco
-
Inventory and Monitoring: January 2001 in Victoria,
Canada
-
Forest Products: TBA
- BOA:
late May or June in Canada (TBA)
Back
to Top
3.
Previous Meeting
The
previous meeting of the NAFC Bureau of Alternates (BOA)
was held on June 11, 2000, in St. Andrew's, New Brunswick.
Back
to Top
4.
Details of Meeting - November 7, 2000
Back
to Top
A.
Val Mezainis chaired the meeting of the BOA. He opened
with introductions and a review of the meeting agenda.
The following topics were added to the "Open Discussion"
agenda item of handling emerging themes: reforestation
(Dube), watersheds (Miller), and nurseries. The following
international activities' updates were also included:
World Forestry Congress (Miller) as well as the recent
meeting on local level criteria and indicators in Chihuahua,
Mexico (Engert and Lara).
Back
to Details
B.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES
1.
FAO: A Management Support Service was created in September
2000, replacing all existing departmental management
support units, with a view to providing a range of
administrative support services, advice and management
information to Divisional Directors and Department
Managers in the area of finance, budget, procurement-requisitioning,
personnel and travel. The introduction of and the
related-training in the Oracle Financial System is
being completed. Field Program operational responsibilities
for non-emergency projects are being further decentralized.
At the end of the process, the distribution of responsibilities
between Headquarters and the decentralized structure
will be as follows:
- Technical
Units at Headquarters: Global and Interregional
projects
-
Regional Offices: Regional projects and projects
in countries without FAO Representations.
-
FAO Representations at country level: country projects.
The
posts of Forestry Department Program Coordinator and
Senior Forestry Officer (Plantations and Protection)
were filled.
2.
MEXICO: Newly elected President, Vicente Fox, has
issued a mandate to allow more decentralization in
the new government. The new government will be instituted
in December. The President has given forestry high
priority, with talk of creating a cabinet level forest
commission. Resources would also be increased; however,
the role of SEMARNAP is still unsure. From November
13-15, there will be a USAID sponsored fire conference
in Mexico City. 18 countries from all over the Americas
will be attending.
3.
CANADA: National elections will be held in Canada
at the end of November. Gordon Miller will assume
responsibility for the science program of the CFS.
An effort is underway to link policy and science and
to work more with C&I. Although administration changes
may occur after the elections, there are new objectives
on the table: reduction of internal networks and bureaucracy,
more time between managers and employees, shifting
projects to higher level, and more emphasis on international
activities.
4.
USA: Organizational changes will also depend on outcome
of the elections. This year, the US had what some
consider the worst fire season in history. Seven million
acres burned in forest and grasslands. Dry fuels and
hot dry weather was the cause. $25 million was spent
to fight the fires. The US received help from Mexico,
Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Israel to combat
the fires. The Clinton administration proposed an
increase to the fire budget by $1.1 billion. Clinton
also signed into law in 2000 an agreement in which
25% of timber sale revenues from public lands would
fund local economic development. Calculations would
be based on historical levels and no longer directly
linked to annual timber sale revenues as in the past.
Both a new forest planning regulation as well as new
roadless policy will be released soon.
Back
to Details
C.
REPORTS FROM THE WORKING GROUPS
1.
Silviculture (Lara)
- Both
Laura Lara and Victor Sosa attended the joint meeting
of the Silviculture and Forest Genetics working
groups in Merida, Mexico, in July.
- Request
to BOA to recognize Frank Wadsworth and Javier Chavelas,
both of who are retired, with plaques.
- Silviculture
group requests that the website be in Spanish and
French as well as English. (see Website notes)
- Lara
and Paqueo will contact Trencia about updates to
NAFC mailing list.
- Jacques
Trencia will contact Liza Paqueo about putting up
the report on the website.
2.
Forest Genetics (Lara)
- Tom
Ledig is the new chair of the working group.
- Forest
Genetics would like to establish cooperation with
all of the Americas.
- In
conjunction with Silviculture group, Forest Genetics
is planning a Southeast Convention, where both groups
will present.
- Joint
meeting in April 2001 in Puerto Rico.
- Victor
Sosa offered to publish Silviculture report from
last meeting…may be ready for publication at the
end of the year.
3.
Forest Products (Miller):
There
is no current report on this group; they haven't
been very active after a fairly enthusiastic start.
4.
Atmospheric Change (Miller)
- This
group has been very active.
- They
had a meeting in October to discuss membership expansion,
building partnerships, and further work on their
charter and development of information brochure.
- Peer
review in February 2001.
- Harry
Hirvonen has agreed to stay on for another 2 years.
- Next
meeting will be in November 2001 in Monterrey, Mexico.
5.
Fire Management (Mezainis)
- Recent
meeting in September in Hawaii.
- They
have $170K CDN leftover from Vancouver conference,
which they will allocate in the following way:
- $35K
for next meeting
- $25K
for development of Fire site on NAFC web page
- $90K
research and collaboration with Mexico: $50K
of research money will be spent on first year
program and the remainder on second year program.
-
Long range plans is to have all three countries
operating under the incident command system.
- Some
of their main objectives for the upcoming year are
to increase skill building, to continue work on
fire rating system, and to have technical exchanges
between Mexico and Canada.
- Next
meeting: October 15-19, 2001 in Cancun, Mexico.
6.
Insects and Diseases (Mezainis)
- New
chair: Tom Sterner Recent meeting: September 20-22,
2000, in Victoria, Canada.
- Mark
Gillis and Harry Hirvonen of Atmospherics working
group attended the meeting.
- The
group will present a resolution at the next commission
meeting for implementation of detection system to
monitor invasives regionally.
- The
group is also doing a pest risk assessment on Sudden
Oak Death, which has recently been seen in Northern
California. Mexico and Canada are afraid that this
disease will spread.
- Next
meeting: September, 2001 in San Francisco.
- Funding
request (see funds)
7.
Inventory and Monitoring (Mezainis)
- The
group has not met since January, 2000.
-
Next meeting in January, 2001, in Victoria, Canada.
Back
to Details
D.
OPEN DISCUSSION: (Emerging issues related to formation
of separate working groups.)
1.
Alien Species
-
There has been a lot of interest by Canada and Mexico
in this subject.
- Mezainis
will explain to Tom Sterner (Insects & Diseases)
about forming the Invasive Species working group,
which will be further subdivided into sub-groups:
Plants and Animals.
- Tom
Sterner is charged with organizing plant group and
asking for proposal/recommendations by next meeting.
2.
Urban Forestry
- BOA
will defer this until the next BOA meeting pending
political situation in Mexico.
- Thought:
Could develop a sister project between Los Angeles
(TreePeople), Mexico City, and Vancouver, rather
than a separate working group?
3.
Carbon Sequestration
- Sosa
suggests to have updated papers on carbon sequestration
(c.q.) ; specifically to update and complete report
for c.q. from St. Andrews across North America.
- BOA
will provide Sosa with contacts on c.q. for purpose
of updating the paper.
- FAO:
Focal point Wulf Killmann may be able to help Sosa.
4.
Watersheds
- The
definition of watersheds is too broad; it can be
integrated into any of the working groups.
- A
sister urban forestry project could jointly address
this issue.
5.
Recreation
- For
Mexico, there is no clear responsibility for recreation
in SEMARNAP, difficult to address issue through
NAFC.
- For
next meeting: BOA will explore this issue in both
the broader sense (social values as a potential
indicator) and in the purely technical sense.
Back
to Details
E.
FUNDING
1.
No Funding requests from either Mexico or Canada.
2.
Insects and Diseases request $20K from BOA for publication
of report on mistletoe; US will handle this.
Back
to Details
F.
REVIEW OF STUDY GROUP ACTIVITIES (Miller)
1.
Automatic Translators from the Internet were tested;
they are not bad tools but not sufficient with official
documents.
2.
Working groups are very interested in seeing liaison
officers attend meetings.
3.
A task force needs to interview these working groups;
will wait for Rosalie McConnell at next meeting to
reconvene task force.
4.
Working groups want clear signals on NAFC expectations.
Dube suggests possibly hiring an external consultant
full time to take a look at the task force mandate
and do a systematic review; BOA sees no value in external
consultant but sees that task force needs to strengthen
interaction with working groups and Commission.
Back
to Top
5.
Details of Meeting - November 8, 2000
A.
WEBSITE & MAILING LIST (Paqueo and Dube)
1.
The progress report of the FAO's consultant, Sander
Dankelman, "International Dialogue on Forestry: FAO
Statutory Bodies on the Internet," was distributed
to participants for their information and reactions,
and to continue efforts to harmonize approaches.
Mr.
Dankelman 's task will be to help us arrive at a structure
that will resolve the following needs:
- Increased
visibility of the statutory body sites on the FAO
Web site overall.
-
A common structure and design for the statutory
body sites that are improved with respect to the
current one (and which facilitates additional material
to the sites and maintenance of existing material).
-
Improved value of the statutory body Web sites,
both for those directly involved with the statutory
bodies, and for those who may come to the Web site
looking for information.
-
Greater linkages among the statutory bodies (for
example, enabling a user to easily see how agenda
items common to all of the regional commissions
have been treated in the different regions).
-
Greater linkages between the statutory body sites
and the information on the rest of the Forestry
Web site (particularly the country information).
2.
FAO hired a consultant for evaluating website.
3.
Paqueo described new design of unofficial NAFC website
located on USFS International Programs website.
4.
Action Items for Website: Each liaison is in charge
of making sure assigned working groups follow consistent
format, as decided upon by BOA:
- About
Us: description on working groups- something longer
than a mission statement. Liaison officers will
be responsible for contacting working group chairs
or writing this section themselves.
- Activities:
past and recent, meeting reports, upcoming activities,
what's new?, publication and databases
- Membership:
needs to be updated.
-
Photos specific to their working group activities
as well as group photo of members (see Forest Genetics
page).
-
All reports will be in English but working groups
are responsible for providing all executive summaries
in French, English, and Spanish. It is too difficult
and BOA does not have enough resources to translate
all the pages in the different languages.
- All
reports must be submitted electronically and not
as hard copies (MS Word, WordPerfect, HTML, Text
files are preferred).
- All
Photos must be scanned in at 72dpi and saved as
jpegs. Gifs are also welcome.
5.
Paqueo will add a calendar of upcoming events and
meetings to site.
6.
Next meeting, BOA will decide on how to organize their
site on the NAFC page.
7.
Paqueo also discussed a mailing list database she
organized for NAFC members. This list needs to be
updated by the commission. Paqueo circulated hard
copy of the mailing list to BOA members, who then
made as many necessary corrections as possible.
8.
Action Items for Mailing List:
- Send
new information (reports, updates, etc) to entire
mailing list as way of sharing information and gaining
more visibility for NAFC and activities.
- Paqueo
will then update membership list on NAFC website.
Back
to Details
B.
WORLD FORESTRY CONGRESS (Miller)
1.
The Congress will meet in 2003 in Quebec City, Canada.
2.
There has been difficulty recruiting Secretary General.
3.
Objectives include identification of where to put
emphasis; search for commercial partners, and work
on details of the meeting in the absence of a Secretary
General.
Back
to Details
C.
YEAR OF THE MOUNTAIN (Dube)
On
15-16 September 1999, a small informal working group
met at the Banff Center for Mountain Culture in the
Canadian Rockies to explore ideas for the further
development of and action on the North American Mountain
Agenda (NAMA). After exploring some of the opportunities
and challenges in the current funding and political
environment, the group laid out a draft four-year
programs, one component of which was the facilitation
of the creation of Year of the Mountain 2002 Pilot
Projects in mountain communities in the three countries.
A general NAMA progress report is available on the
Mountain Forum on-line
library. Other contact persons are leslie_taylor@banffcentre.ab.ca
or ebyers@mountain.org
.
Back
to Details
D.
MEXICO C&I (Engert and Lara)
1.
Lionel Iglesias is head of C&I project in Mexico.
2.
Chihuahua Meeting in late October to introduce test
and how it relates to Montreal Process and forest
level work, to gain ownership.
3.
There was high level of interest and support on the
first day.
4.
USFS Inventory and Monitoring Institute (IMI) is the
US contribution to this project. Pam Wright and Judy
Loo (geneticist, Canada), Tom Hoekstra, and Mexico
were at the meeting to collaborate together.
5.
SEMARNAP helped fund this project.
6.
It is necessary to have $360K MEX for commitment from
the next administration in Mexico. Need a report from
Lionel to support this request.
7.
Proposal of $235K US to fund project for 2 years-
$140K (first year) and $95K (second year). Currently,
there is $65K US from USFS and USAID.
8.
Mexico will donate $25K.
9.
Miller suggests Canada will pay for Pam Wright's time.
10.
Second workshop possibly in February or March.
Back
to Details
E.
COFLAC (Lara)
1.
Sosa and Alfredo Martinez attended the Bogota meeting,
where Sosa was voted Vice President of Central American
region.
2.
At the meeting, they prepared items to have a program
of concrete activities. Discussed activities will
be presented to all Latin America.
3.
At the end of November, there will be a meeting in
Brazil.
4.
Also discussed: more C&I efforts in southern Mexico
and Central America.
Back
to Details
F.
REGIONAL FORESTRY COMMISSION ON FAO (Dube)
The
idea of strengthening the role of FAO Regional Forestry
Commissions as regional fora has been discussed and
will be further discussed during COFO in March 2001,
in particular when the Bureaus of Regional Forestry
Commissions will meet on Sunday, 11 March, 2001.
Back
to Details
G.
FOLLOW-UP TO BOA MEETING IN ST. ANDREWS
Laura
Lara will translate all BOA minutes into Spanish.
Back
to Details
H.
FOLLOW-UP TO NAFC RECOMMENDATIONS IN ST. ANDREWS
1.
Silviculture working group needs to integrate some
specific activities in tropical forests.
2.
FAO focal points need to play more active role in
NAFC activities; focal points can attend BOA meeting
in Rome.
3.
BOA will examine urban forestry, watershed, recreation
at the next meeting.
4.
Recommended to FAO to expand urban forestry, watershed,
and recreation to a watershed scale to include eco-tourism.
5.
Mezainis recommends instituting a Secretariat: possible
retiree who can volunteer his or her time but NAFC
will pay for his travel. Secretariat will attend meeting,
collect reports, work with Paqueo on website, put
out a newsletter. To be discussed at next meeting.
Back
to Details
I.
MEETING WITH FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE
Back
to Details
J.
NEXT BOA MEETING
1.
Canada will host next meeting in May or June (TBA).
BOA proposes that FAO will host October meeting in
Rome.
2.
Hawaii will be the site of the next commission meeting.
Back
to Top
6.
Details
of Meeting - November 9, 2000
Field trip to Ixtlan de Juarez in Oaxaca.
|
