Dr. Jim Bowyer of Dovetail Partners will be the keynote speaker for the joint meeting of the Timber Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Society of Wood Science and Technology. The event will be held in Geneva, Switzerland Oct. 11-14 and brings together delegates from 40 countries representing governments, industry, research organizations, non-governmental organizations and the media.  
 
Both Dr. Bowyer and Kathryn Fernholz of Dovetail Partners are contributing authors to this year’s Forest Products Annual Market Review. Bowyer is the lead author in the policy arena, and Fernholz is a contributing author and will present findings regarding forest certification and certified wood products at the October event.
 
Fernholz has extensive experience in forest certification auditing in North America and is executive director of Minneapolis-based Dovetail Partners, a nonprofit organization that provides authoritative information about the impacts and trade-offs of environmental decisions, including consumption choices, land use, and policy alternatives. Bowyer directs Dovetail’s Responsible Materials Program and is a professor emeritus, University of Minnesota Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering; he is also past president of the Society of Wood Science and Technology and an Elected Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science.
 
The UNECE Timber Committee and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) European Forestry Commission have been releasing the Forest Products Annual Market Review since the 1950s. The Review covers forest products markets and policy developments in the three UNECE subregions (North-America, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States), as well as their major trading partner, China. The theme of the Forest Products Annual Market Review, 2009-2010 is “Innovation for structural change recovery”.  
 
The annual UNECE Timber Committee Market Discussions will be held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva.