State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland gave the opening address at the workshop

Mr. Arne Ivar Sletnes delivered a statement on behalf of Mr. Knut Oistad, Norway, the representative of the General Coordinating Committee of the MCPFE.

Mr Peter Csoka, Officer in charge gave a statement on behalf of the Secretariat of the United Nations Forum on Forests

Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) provided the workshop with written statements.

Prof. Jonas Nagahuedi Mbongu Sodi, Executive Secretary of the COMIFAC, provided a written statement for the workshop.

The three keynote presentations at the workshop gave further information and ideas to stimulate the discussions at the workshop.

Dr. Markku Kanninen, Director, Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) gave a presentation on “Direct and indirect causes of deforestation, forest degradation and desertification”.

Dr. Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Associate Professor, Alterra, the Wageningen University in the Netherlands, gave a presentation on the “Role of forests and climate change: impacts, adaptation and mitigation.

Dr. Elena Kulikova, Forest Program, Director from the WWF - Russia gave a presentation on the “Role of forests and biological diversity.

Dr. Malgorzata Buszko-Briggs from the MCPFE Liaison Unit presented the Background note. She reported about the pan-European MCPFE commitments, achievements and plans for future implementation concerning forests in the changing environment.

Finnish forest policy activities were presented at excursion:

Mr Ilkka Heikkinen, Director, Nature Conservation, Ministry for the Environment of Finland gave a presentation on the "Forest biodiversity programme for Southern Finland"

Dr. Tuula Nuutinen and Dr Leena Kärkkäinen, Finnish Forest Research Institute gave a presentation on the local forest programmes in Finland