Forest products, markets and socio-economics: ten years of pan-European research co-operation at EFI

An insight of the EFI Programme on Forest Products, Markets and Socio-economics should consider that Forest Economics research is generally done by small groups of scientists dispersed around Universities and Research Institutes. EFI has provided the European forest economists a new arena—laboratory, an encounter place, where they can meet, find new opportunities and challenges through co-operation and joint research work. The three main themes of research considered by the Programme have been: (i) market analysis; (ii) forest related industries and regional development; (iii) business management and accounting. An extensive list of publications demonstrate the outstanding quantity of research work undertaken during the last decade. All in all, it has to be acknowledged also that the quality of the research work, undertaken according to the tradition of forest economists, open to both scientific innovation and attention to the real world. The ability to attract human and financial resources in forestry economics research must also be acknowledged. A shortcoming is the poor coverage of certain regions of Europe. However, it should be mentioned that the large spectrum of nationalities involved in the most recent years as well as the launch of Regional Project Centres are now paying major attention to regional issues. Relationships with EFI members have been essential to the Programme: when research has been done by networking with members, an added value can always be seen and the light of the ‘diamond’ can be fully appreciated. Otherwise, it has remained shadowed by regional narrow perspectives missing the main scope of EFI.