On 1st of December, the European Wood Policy Platform held its 1st high-level meeting, co-chaired by Austrian and Finnish governments, in Innsbruck, Austria.
EPF was delighted to be invited to this kick-off event – the starting point of a platform aiming at creating synergies and bringing together knowledge and expertise from relevant stakeholders – government representatives, scientists, business experts, national organisations as well as European and international federations.
Mr Norbert Totschnig, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water and Management of the Republic of Austria and Mr Teppo Lehtinen, Director General of the Department of the Built Environment at the Ministry of Environment of Finland opened the session. Keynote speakers were Mr Ewald Rametsteiner (FAO), Mrs Anne-Christine Ritschkoff (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) and Mr Petri Heino (Director of the Wood Building Programme at the Ministry of Environment of Finland).
More than 60 participants attended the event. The exchanges mainly dealt with:
- wood construction
- innovation
- wood building technologies
- market information
- wood-based bioeconomy
- best practices and scientific case studies
- awareness raising, communication on the sector and ways to align policy initiatives and strategies such as the New European Bauhaus
Views were exchanged in support of the WOODPOP CALL on upscaling wood policy cooperation in Europe, which EPF highly values.
