1. At the kind invitation of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, the AFWC/EFC/NEFC Committee on Mediterranean Forestry Questions - Silva Mediterranea - held its sixteenth session in Larnaca from 13 to 17 June 1994. The session was attended by delegates from the following members: Cyprus, European Economic Community, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sudan and Tunisia; and by observers from Albania and Germany. Representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and the Economic Commission for Africa, and observers from the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (ICAMAS) and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) also attended. The full list of participants is given in Annex B.
2. The session was chaired by Mr. F. Mota, Chairman of the Committee. Mr. J. P. Lanly, Director, Forest Resources Division, Forestry Department, FAO, represented the Director-General of FAO. Mr. M. Malagnoux (FAO) served as Secretary.
3. Mr. Mota welcomed the participants and thanked the Cypriot authorities for their hospitality and for organizing the session. He stressed the particular importance of this session which was to discuss, among other items, the implementation of the Mediterranean Forest Action Programme.
4. Mr. G. Lycaurgos, Mayor of Larnaca, welcomed the participants on behalf of the municipality and the people and recalled the long history of Cyprus and Larnaca, whose wealth was closely linked to forest resources.
5. His Excellency the Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment, Mr. Costa Petrides, welcomed the participants and conveyed the best wishes of His Excellency Glafkos Clerides, President of the Republic, for the success of the session. He recalled the long and fruitful cooperation between his country and FAO in forestry matters. He then stressed the role of Silva Mediterranea as a forum for coordinating activities to meet the common problems facing the region's forests. He also stressed the important role that the forest and forest products had played and continued to play in his country's social and economic development.
6. Mr. Lanly welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director-General of FAO and thanked the Cypriot Government for the excellent arrangements made for the organization of the session. He recalled the challenge now facing foresters world-wide in the wake of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio, 1992, as those responsible for the conservation and sustainable development of forest ecosystems. The Mediterranean Forest Action Programme, the implementation of which would be discussed at this session of the Committee, was an instrument of the implementation of the most important forestry decision of UNCED's "Agenda 21" Programme which appealed to all countries to establish and implement national forest action plans and programmes. The Committee would also be invited to assess the work of its research networks, review the findings of the recent FAO survey on the region's forest resources and discuss the Mediterranean countries' forest administrative structures.
7. Before moving on to the agenda, the Chairman drew attention to a point of procedure concerning the sharing of responsibilities and voting rights between the European Economic Community and its member states. The Committee's attention was drawn to information note FO:SCM/94/lnf. 4 concerning the procedure to be followed in this session.
8. The provisional agenda was adopted after the addition of a further item "Forest Resources Assessment, 1990" (Annex A). The list of documents prepared by the Secretariat on the various agenda items is given in Annex C.
9. In conformity with the provisions of Article II.5 of its Rules of Procedure, the Committee unanimously elected Mr. Driss Ben Bahtane (Morocco) as Rapporteur.
10. The Committee noted document FO:SCM/94/2 summarizing the actions taken by FAO in response to the recommendations addressed to it by the fifteenth session. Those concerning the Mediterranean Forest Action Programme had been taken into consideration in the final formulation of the document. The Committee was informed of the conformity of the proposed amendment of its Rules of Procedure with the Organization's basic texts and the practical implications of its adoption. After recalling the reasons for its request, it confirmed its intention and recommended that FAO proceed with the amendment of its Rules of Procedure so that the election of officers may take place at the beginning of the session.
