Congress Recieves Strong Governmental Support
The financial support for the Congress increases day by day. The governmental support now adds up to 4.5 million SEK.
“We’ve had strong support from day one. This is more evident now when the governmental bodies formally have signed financial support for the Congress”, says Fredrik Ingemarson, Chair of the Congress Organizing Committee for the IUFRO World Congress 2024.
The Nordic Council of Ministers has earlier signed a Letter of Support for the Congress. Now the support can be measured in financial terms. This also applies for the Baltic countries. The governments of Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania supports the congress with 4 490 000 SEK, approximately 390 000 EUROS.
“The Nordic countries have an ambitious goal to become the most sustainable region in the world. In this quest, forests play a crucial role as they effectively absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere”, says Karen Elleman, Secretary General, Nordic Council of Ministers.
“Moreover, half of the Nordic Region’s land area is covered with forests, and the sector is of huge importance to the economies in the Nordic countries. Therefore, the Nordic countries play an active role in international cooperation on forest issues, and we see great potential in the IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm 2024.”
In its Letter of Support for the Congress the Nordic Council of Ministers also states:
“The IUFRO World Congress provides an important platform to open a global dialogue about lessons learned from Nordic forestry and also to learn from other parts of the world about local as well as global developments”.
The Council also see the potential of a policy orientated dialogue. And several ministers will participate in the Panel Discussion of Ministers during the opening day of the Congress.
“Our rich and diverse landscapes offer a variety of forest sites as well as cultures, stakeholders, markets and industries. This should ensure strong policy dialogues for the delegates during the congress including the excursions to the neighboring Baltic countries”, the council states.
“I think the Nordic countries and the Baltic states the role of the forest sector is quite unique. It has several objectives in the society and I think it will be interesting for the delegates of the Congress to see how these different objectives can be combined”, says Erno Järvinen, representative of the Finnish Government.
And Fredrik Ingemarson, Chair of the Congress Organizing Committee, is very pleased with the governmental support: “It is not only a strong signal to our potential partners but also a signal to the rest of the world that the ambition of the host countries is to arrange a highly valuable Congress for all stakeholders”,
The Congress already has financial support from other stakeholders such as Formas – one of the largest research councils in Sweden – as well as from several universities in the partner countries. The goal of the congress is to showcase and discuss forest research that highlights the role of forests in societal development towards the year 2050.
The 26th IUFRO World Congress will take place at Stockholmsmässan in Stockholm from June 23 to 29, 2024. The Congress is held every five years, and in 2024, SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, is organizing the Congress in collaboration with the Nordic and Baltic countries on behalf of IUFRO, one of the world’s oldest scientific organizations. The first congress was held 130 years ago in Vienna, Austria, in 1893.