APFORGEN Annual Meeting and International Symposium

In conjunction with the celebration of the International Day for Biodiversity 2025, APFORGEN has organized its annual meeting and international symposium at the University of the Philippines Los Baños from 19-23 May 2025, together with the College of Forestry and Natural Resources of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI). The activities were made possible with funding support from the Republic of Korea through the National Institute of Forest Sciences (NIFoS).

The meeting had seven main objectives:

1. To provide updates on implementing APFORGEN’s strategy by learning from the experiences of representative member countries.
2. To share initiatives and collaboration opportunities in member countries.
3. To share key findings from Asia through presentations and discussions in the Symposium.
4. To share and identify collaboration, funding, and positioning opportunities.
5. To review and prioritize targets under the APFORGEN’s objectives and identify the top three key activities to be carried out.
6. To honor APFORGEN’s past board members, and to elect new board members for the next three-year term (2025-2028).
7. To conduct a one-day MyFarmTrees workshop as a digital platform for monitoring and incentivizing tree planting efforts.

The three-day main programme consisted of day 1 focusing on sharing APFORGEN’s strategy objectives 2023-2030 and its outcome, lessons learned from the regional project, updates from representative member countries on their work in Forest Genetic Resources (FGR) conservation and application, sharing key findings in the second report taken from the FAO publication on the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources, and also sharing positioning and fundraising opportunities related to the APFORGEN targets. Day 2 programme included presentations on research findings, discussion and reflection of forest and biodiversity research, and identification of possible collaborating activities through the APFORGEN international symposium. While day 3 covered a training workshop on using the MyFarmTrees digital platform in both theoretical and practical applications, a presentation on APFORGEN’s report of the Board meeting of 2024, the dissolution of the past APFORGEN board member, and the election of new board members for the next three-year term (2025-2028), as well as prioritization of APFORGEN’s target objectives and identification of key activities to be carried out for each prioritized target. Additionally, the last day's activity covered a short campus tour and a cultural visit to the Villa Escudero Plantations & Resort, where participants got to experience nature, biodiversity and cultural show in the area, after an intensive day of activities and get to know each other better.

The meeting was attended by 27 participants—scientists, researchers, and experts from APFORGEN member countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The APFORGEN Secretariat would like to extend appreciation to all the past Board members and congratulate the appointment of the four new Board members, who have been voted in unanimously for the next three-year term (2025-2028). These members are

• Dr. Rekha Warrier, Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (Chair)
• Dr. Analyn Codilan, University of the Philippines Los Baños (Co-Chair)
• Mr Chaloun Bounthiphonh, National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (Secretary)
• Dr. Vivi Yuskianti, National Research and Innovation Agency (Board member)

In addition, Dr. Enrique L. Tolentino Jr. was also appointed as the Honorary Board member. 

Great to have everyone on board and looking forward to more collaboration in future activities!