Keeping record of the origin of Forest Reproductive Material (FRM) – seeds, seedlings, cuttings, and other plant material – is essential for maintaining healthy, climate-resilient forests. Knowing where the FRM used at a planting site comes from helps us match material to local environments, safeguard genetic diversity, and ensure high-quality regeneration practices. As climate change accelerates, having a reliable system for long-term documenting which regeneration material has been used at each location is becoming increasingly important for forest managers, nurseries, researchers, and policymakers alike.

To better understand how FRM origin is currently recorded, we have developed a short and user-friendly questionnaire designed to capture practices along the entire value chain. It targets eight types of respondents – from seed and plant producers to forest owners, service companies, researchers, and public administrators. Although the tailored questions differ by role, most questions are shared across respondent groups, making it possible to compare practices and identify common strengths and challenges. The questionnaire is intentionally concise to encourage participation and can be completed in just a few minutes. The results will give us a clearer picture of how provenance information is followed within countries, where gaps or inconsistencies exist, and what kinds of traceability systems would best serve the practice in the future.

We warmly invite you to take part in the survey and to share it with colleagues and contacts who work with FRM, helping us gather perspectives from across the sector and strengthen the basis for trustworthy, high-quality FRM in Europe. Your experience and insights are extremely valuable to this effort.