As a follow up to the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources process APFORGEN member countries agreed in 2014 to strive towards establishing a Regional Training Centre on Forest Genetic Resources. The initiative is spearheaded by the Chinese Academy of Forestry which represents China in APFORGEN. A workshop was held on 1-3 December 2015 in Binzhou City, China, to plan for the implementation of the Regional Training Centre. The workshop had the following objectives:

• Develop the concept of the training centre – what, why, how, for whom
• Plan an assessment of training needs related to FGR
• Identify existing training materials that can be adopted or adapted for use at the training center

The workshop was jointly organized by the National Forest Genetic Resources Platform of China, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, APFORGEN, the Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI) and Bioversity International. The workshop was hosted by China Happy Ecology, a private company working on tree breeding and ecological restoration.