The Yale Chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) invites you to its 33rd Annual Conference, Advancing Resilience, Justice and Accountability for Tropical Forests, taking place February 11-13, 2027. In the wake of COP30 in Belém and a wave of new forest finance, regulation, and monitoring initiatives, this year’s conference asks a pointed question: are these efforts actually delivering for tropical forests and for the people who steward them?
The conference will be held in a hybrid format, with in-person participation at the Yale School of the Environment and virtual participation from anywhere in the world.
Registration coming soon!
About the Conference
After COP30 in Belém, new commitments promised to turn tropical forest pledges into results: billions in results-based finance through the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, the EU Deforestation Regulation, and a rebounding carbon market. Tropical primary forest loss even fell by more than a third in 2025.
That progress is fragile. A returning El Niño threatens to reverse it, the Amazon edges toward a tipping point, and many of the tools meant to help are being built without the consent or oversight of the Indigenous Peoples and local communities who steward these forests. With 2030 approaching, the 33rd Annual ISTF Conference asks what is working, what isn’t, and who holds decision-making power.
Conference Pillars
Our 2027 gathering will be structured around four thematic pillars:
- Resilience in a Volatile Climate
Amid emerging ecological evidence, these sessions will explore how definitions and approaches to resilience among scientists, financiers, and local communities align, where they diverge, and how those differences shape decisions about conservation, restoration, finance, monitoring, and adaptation. - Translating Knowledge to Action
This pillar examines how knowledge about rapidly changing tropical forests is generated, integrated, and translated into decisions. Sessions will consider how scientific research, Indigenous and local knowledge, and practitioner experience can complement or challenge one another in understanding these changes. Discussions will evaluate what forms of knowledge shape global forest commitments, policies, and investments, and whether these mechanisms effectively keep pace with rapidly evolving evidence and changing conditions on the ground. - The New Forest Economy: Who Benefits?
This pillar interrogates the results-based finance mechanisms, jurisdictional carbon deals, regulatory regimes, and certifications now reshaping how money moves through tropical forest landscapes. Sessions will examine whether these instruments deliver high-integrity, equitable outcomes or reproduce extractive dynamics, and how alternative economic models and financing approaches may advance regenerative bioeconomies that support Indigenous Peoples and local communities. - Governance, Rights and Data Justice
This pillar addresses who holds power over tropical forest land, knowledge, and information. It will explore the state of Indigenous and community land tenure amid growing extraction pressure, the effectiveness and vulnerabilities of community forest concessions, and the rapid rise of AI-enabled remote sensing and monitoring—asking who controls this data, who is trained to use it, and whether it strengthens or sidelines local and Indigenous authority over forest landscapes.
Key Questions we will explore:
- What does true ecological resilience look like, as fire, drought, and tipping-point risk intensify across the tropics?
- How effectively does evolving scientific, Indigenous, local, and practitioner knowledge inform forest policy, finance, and action?
- How do international forest commitments and financing mechanisms align with national and subnational development and land-use priorities?
- Are new finance mechanisms like the TFFF and jurisdictional carbon markets built to deliver direct, accountable benefit to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, or do they risk repeating past failures?
- Who owns and controls the data produced by AI and remote-sensing monitoring tools, and how can these technologies be governed equitably?
Format and Participation
The 33rd Annual ISTF conference will be hosted in a hybrid format at the Yale School of the Environment, with both in-person and virtual participation. We welcome researchers, practitioners, policymakers, financiers, Indigenous knowledge holders, community leaders, artists, journalists, students, and activists, especially from the Global South and historically underrepresented groups.