Opening Ceremony – Words of Welcome

Your Royal Highness
Excellencies
Distinguished Guests
Dear Colleagues,

I would like to begin by thanking His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon for opening the Forest Europe Ministerial Conference. We admire the work of the Crown Prince in supporting crucial development challenges of today. It is encouraging and important that His Royal Highness also highlighted the role of forests and sustainable forest management in efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to welcome you all to this FOREST EUROPE Conference. I wish to express my gratitude and honour for your acceptance of our invitation. I am very pleased that so many Ministers and high level representatives of the European States, the European Union and Observer States are able to be in Oslo today. I would also like to welcome distinguished delegates from international institutions, inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, scientific community, private sector and others accepting our invitation.
This ministerial conference is hosted jointly by Norway and Spain. I would like to use this opportunity to welcome warmly my fellow co-chair for this event, Madame Rosa Aguilar Rivero, Minister of Environment and Rural and Marin Affairs of Spain.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentleman,

You are currently visiting a country with rich forest resources. It has not always been like this. Norwegian forests were degraded and not sustainably managed in the end of the 19th century. The development of the national forest inventory, the forest laws and institutions in early 20th century laid down fundaments of national forest governance in Norway.

We are benefitting from brave and good decisions in the past.

Now we need to prepare for the future. If we want to give next generations the chance to benefit from healthy forests, we need to make new decisions to tackle challenges of today and tomorrow, with combating climate change at the forefront. This should be task of all of us, the governments, the private sector, NGOs and civil society.

Since 1990 our join efforts, in what we now call Forest Europe, has delivered the basis and tools for sustainable forest management. The commitments at the previous five Ministerial Conferences are important achievements in the European cooperation for sustainable forestry. The good participation at this Ministerial conference is promising for forests, for FOREST EUROPE and the role of this process in the future. 

We have important issues to discuss during these two days. I hope that we together will be able to make decisions that will serve the people and the forests of Europe in the years to come.

Let us take the opportunity to look beyond today. Let us deliberate on how to secure the forests in Europe to the benefit of the society.

I look forward to listening to your views on the challenges and opportunities for sustainable forest management and together with my fellow co-chair I will do my best to facilitate our debate.

New challenges require new means and new tools. Not least, they require cooperation across borders.

Let us make brave decisions!.

Welcome.