Sep 19, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. After an exciting vote at the EFI annual conference, professor Jim Lynch from the Forestry Commission, UK, has been elected to the EFI board. He starts his 3-year term immediately replacing the François Houllier, who served altogether five years in the board. Jim Lynch is currently chief executive of Forest Research, UK. Also, since 1989, he has been the co-ordinator of the OECD programme on Biological Resource Management. He has both extensive experience in research management and a comprehensive scientific track record. The board unanimously elected Konstantin von Teuffel as the new chairman of the board and Cecil Konijnendijk as vice chairman. The board has eight members, half of them representing EFI’s 129 Associate and Affiliate member organizations. The other half are elected by the EFI Council, which is formed of European countries that have ratified the Convention on EFI. Nominations continued as Hubert Sterba (Austria) and Davide Pettenella (Italy) are due to leave the Scientific Advisory Board at the end of the year. Two new members to replace them were appointed by the Board. They are Hubert Hasenauer (Austria) and Emil Cienciala (Czech Republic) who will join the SAB in January 2007. The EFI annual conference was held in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, on 14 September. A total of 115 participants gathered to this event, where major decisions on the direction of EFI are annual made by EFI’s Associate members from 38 countries. EFI is an international organization established by European States. By the end of February 2006, ten European States (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania, Spain and Sweden) had ratified the Convention on EFI. With its over 130 member organizations and seven project centers, it offers the best forest research contacts and acknowledged collaboration at the European level.