During this podcast, Tarun Bathija interviews Michael Kleine (IUFRO-SPDC Project Coordinator) to get a better understanding of the International Union of Forest Research Organization's - Special Program for Developing Countries.The mission of the Special Programme for Developing Countries (in short IUFRO-SPDC) is "to expand and foster forest research capacity in developing and economically disadvantaged countries".According to the programme's strategy for 2007 to 2010 the IUFRO-SPDC activities cover the following five priority areas:Enhancing core scientific competence;Improving information management and dissemination;Enhancing science contribution to policy processes;Promoting communication and multi-stakeholder learning processes,Providing institutional support to regional forest research networks. 

The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) provides the framework to share forest-related information through a single gateway at www.gfis.net.


It promotes the dissemination and sharing of forest and tree-related information and knowledge among the global forestry community by developing common information exchange standards, building capacity and enhancing partnerships among forestry information providers and users.


This podcast is an introduction to GFIS, how it works exactly, what its future plans for development are and what is important for you to know!


Enjoy your listening!