New President in Netherlands
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Vincent Troost was elected on 23rd January 2025 as new president of Pro Silva Nederland
Every year a Europe-wide meeting of about 50 representatives from the member organisations with selected guests takes place. The host country changes annually. Usually 3 days excursions are offered and an official annual general meeting is organised.
The following international meetings with an intensive excursion programme have taken place or are planned in recent years:
Individual Pro Silva Members from different member countries as well as delegations or board members from Pro Silva are participatinig frequently in international meetings to represent Pro Silva and their home country, to present contributions or scientific results. They are participating at the excursions to contribute their expertice and opinion and develop the network of Pro Silva.
Excursions to neigbouring countries and also around whole Europe have a long tradition in the activities of Pro Silva. Since the beginning in 1989 delegations and travel groups visited managed forests and remnants of virgin or pristine forests all around Europe. Most of those trips were kindly organised by the partner member organisations in the host country. Often those excursions were done on a self cost basis with forth and back exchanges between host and guest countries.
The core team and the Executive Board hold monthly telephone conferences for ongoing voting.
In addition, additional meetings are held with one or more neighbouring countries, such as Slovenia/Italy/Austria in autumn 2015 or Germany/Switzerland/Austria in 2014.
Pro Silva is also associated with the "Association Futaie Irrégulière" (AFI) based in France, which has laid the scientific foundations for the establishment of sample collections and their long-term monitoring.
Through this organisation, more than 100 sample stocks of at least 5 ha have been established with a focus on Western Europe (France, England, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.). These form the basis for a future Europe-wide network of example farms and sample stands as "best practice examples" for near-natural forest management in diverse forest communities.
In the future, the Pro Silva organisations will be increasingly involved in international projects as observers or partners and will continue to cultivate cooperation in the current year. In addition, the positioning in European forestry policy is to be improved.