Colleagues from the Wyss Academy's Hub Southeast Asia and RECOFTC discussed their work with IUFRO participants. Photo: Utsav Maden, RECOFTC
The Wyss Academy for Nature's Hub Southeast Asia attended one of the world’s largest gatherings of forest scientists at the 26th IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm, from 23 to 29 June 2024. The Wyss Academy for Nature collaborated with RECOFTC with the spirit to engage and share with policymakers and key stakeholders in the forest sector.
The World Congress was the largest one to date, with more than 4,300 delegates, 3,500 presentations and 70 showcased innovations (source). The conference offered a chance to learn from forestry experts and make an impact on future policies, focusing on technical innovations and the forest stakeholders from the Global North. As advocates for communities and community engagement in Southeast Asia, the Wyss Academy Hub Southeast Asia and RECOFTC engaged in meaningful yet challenging discussions from our shared booths where delegates stopped by and conversed about our work in Southeast Asia.
Convening stakeholders has proven to be a key in forest conservation. Different stakeholders hold different perspectives and expectations from a forest; be it scientists, communities, policymakers, or businesses. But a similar challenge remains for both temperate and tropical forests in matching the needs of diverse stakeholders.
How do we engage stakeholders with dissimilar needs? How do communities defend and sustain their rights to access and use forest resources? How do we strike a balance between development needs, conservation, and protection of community rights? How can we increase biodiversity and still maintain access to forest resources? The answers to these questions are contextual, and we believe that the key is a collaborative process.
The IUFRO World Congress highlighted the importance of applied research. As we continue our work in nature conservation, we are reminded once again to bridge the gap between research and practice, to break down silos among stakeholders and strive for mutual benefits to human wellbeing and nature itself.
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