Sep 20, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. The EFI annual conference in Netherlands on 14 September supported the establishment of the first regional office of EFI in Barcelona, Spain, later this year. This is a clear signal from EFI member countries to further develop EFI and strengthen European forest research. “Spain and Catalonia have taken the first step to support forest research which both at regional and pan-European levels. We believe this development will spread also to other parts of Europe”, commented director of EFI, Risto Päivinen. “At the same time, this does not mean any reduction of activities at the EFI Headquarters. In fact, this means more work and new financial resources also for the EFI as a whole.“ The authorities and associate members of EFI will benefit from having regional offices by getting more visibility to their regional forest issues in the European context. For EFI these offices bring more funding and secure EFI network. The regional offices are an integral and permanent parts of EFI organization. Their activities will be in line with EFI strategies and monitored similarly to EFI research programmes. While they bring in a new element to the organization, the seven project centers, that are thematic networks of EFI across Europe , will continue their activities as before. EFI is an international organization established by a convention ratified by 11 European countries. Up until now, one third (Euro 1 million) of the funding has been received from the government of Finland, while the other two-thirds have been project funding from various funding sources. Spain, being one of the ratifying countries, supports the activities of EFI with Euro 200 000 and Catalonia provides funding of Euro 125 000 annually.