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MigFoRest international conference, April 14 2026, Brussels

Registration is free (deadline March 20). Conference is in English, intended for professionnals, researchers and policy makers in the field of forestry.

Venue: Conscience-building,  Koning Albert II-laan / Boulevard du Roi Albert II 15, 1210 Brussels

Program:

08:45 – 09:30 | Welcome Coffee & Registration

09:30 – 09:45 | Opening Remarks

• Welcome and conference objectives by Gerald Louette, member of management team INBO (Flemish research institute for nature and forest)
• Why MigFoRest (project overview), by Diane Doucet, MigFoRest project lead at SRFB (Royal Forestry Society of Belgium)

MORNING SESSION – SCIENTIFIC INSIGHTS ON ASSISTED MIGRATION

09:45 – 10:25 |Marcela Van Loo (Austrian Forest Institute)

Assisted Migration in Practice: Seed Sources, Provenance Selection and Cross‑Border Collaboration

10:25 – 11:00 | Annabel Porté (Inrea, UMR BIogeco Université de Bordeaux)

Physiological and Morphological Criteria for Selecting Candidate Oak Species for Assisted Migration

11:00– 11:30| Coffee Break

11:30 – 12 :05 | Koenraad Van Meerbeek (Faculty of Bioscience engineering KU Leuven)

​Mind the functional gap: Functional assisted migration to sustain ecosystem functions under climate change.

12:05 – 12:35 | Elena Lobo (European Commission, DG Environment)

EU Forest Strategy for 2030, current EU policies and legislation on assisted migration, forest genetic materials, protection of species and habitats.

 12:35 – 13:30 | Lunch Break

AFTERNOON SESSION – MIGFOREST PARTNERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS

13:30 – 13:55  | Charalambos Neophytou (Forest genetics and forest reproductive material at Forest Research Institute Baden-Württember/FVA)

Assisted Migration of Forest Trees. Aligning Genetic Research and Practice

13:55 – 14:20 | Bram D’hondt (Wildlife management and invasive species at Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest/INBO)

Assessing Invasiveness Risk in Assisted Migration Strategies

14:20 – 14:45 | Gilles San Martin (Departement of life sciences at Walloon Agricultural Resarch Center/CRA‑W)

Ecological Potential of AM Species: Evidence From Belgian and Transnational Trials

14:45 – 15:10 | Maxime Lambinet (Project manager at Royal Forestry Society of Belgium/SRFB)

Complex Functional Networks and Regional Adaptation: Linking Field Data and Ecosystem Modelling

15:10 – 15:40 | Coffee Break

PANEL DEBATE

15:40 – 16:40 | Roundtable – “Opportunities and Risks of Assisted Migration in Europe”

With speakers of the day, facilitated by Olivier Fabes, MigFoRest communication officer at SRFB

Themes:

• Practical deployment and monitoring
• Possible pain points (and solutions)
• Risk assessment and policy frameworks

16:40 – 17:00 | Final Q&A and Closing Remarks, by Diane Doucet, MigFoRest project lead