The organisers of the 23rd European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) in Manchester, UK regret to announce that the Forum meeting scheduled for the 19th – 23rd May 2020 has been postponed due to increasing concern of the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The outbreak is already affecting travel plans and a willingness for delegates to travel during the current outbreak. A number of travel restrictions are in place, students are being recalled and flights to several destinations cancelled. Whilst progress of the epidemic is uncertain the UK government policy is to first contain then delay the onset of the epidemic. Reports suggest that the peak for COVID-19 in the UK may happen in April and/or May 2020, regretfully coinciding with EFUF.
This decision has not been taken lightly and there is huge disappointment in Manchester at this turn of events. Those who have paid their conference fees, gala dinner and Saturday excursion costs already will be reimbursed shortly. Regretfully the organisers are unable to meet any other costs such as travel or hotel cancellation costs and suggest you refer this to your insurers or see if your travel provider or hotel chain is waiving fees at the present time due to the special circumstances.
Plans are being developed for a reorganised event in autumn 2020 and further details of this will be released in due course. If you have submitted a proposal for a conference oral presentation or poster presentation, these are now ‘on hold’ and will be subject to ‘further review’ when details of the reorganised event are known. You do not need to take any further action on these currently and will be informed in due course if your presentation is still possible at the reorganised Forum.
We thank you for your understanding which has been driven by exceptional circumstances beyond our control.
Please visit the EFUF 2020 website (http://efuf2020.org.uk) or EFUF main website (http://www.efuf.org) for further details of the reorganised event as these become available.