FLARE 2023 – Nairobi

The FLARE Secretariat is delighted to announce that the 2023 FLARE Annual Meeting will be held October 12-16 in Nairobi, Kenya in partnership with CIFOR-ICRAF. You are invited! The event will be held at the beautiful CIFOR-ICRAF campus in Nairobi and represents the first FLARE annual meeting to take place in the Global South.

2023 Annual Meeting Abstract Guidelines

Please review the 2023 Abstract Guidelines before submitting your proposal. 


Abstracts for oral presentations, lightning talks, panel sessions, workshops, posters, and innovative sessions must follow the guidelines and address one of the ten meeting themes (see below).

2023 Annual Meeting Theme

Linking Research and Action for Thriving Forests, Trees, and People


Research can play a key role in advocacy and action to address climate change, reduce vulnerability, conserve forests, and foster human development. For example, evidence accumulated over decades has demonstrated the critical role of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in protecting and sustainably managing forests and, in turn, helped lead to government recognition of community land rights and new funding flows. More generally, impact assessments of different forest-related interventions have helped improve policy design.


Yet too often research has been ineffective in fostering change – or reforms benefitting communities and forests inspired and honed by research have been clawed back by forest services and other interested parties. Too often, even when research reveals options and abuses, key findings are hidden behind a paywall, suppressed by threatened parties, or are couched in specialist language that obscures their practical relevance, among other barriers. The result is that knowledge relevant to tackling the urgent challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty alleviation and other social ills often remains unused.  What can we do to confront such obstacles? How can research—and researchers—make a difference?


FLARE 2023 will explore these questions and seeks to make concrete progress toward better harnessing research for action. Doing so will require dialogue and collaboration among scientists, government officials, concerned citizens, activists and advocates, business leaders, journalists, and others.


Therefore, proposals for FLARE 2023 are particularly welcome that:


  • Include collaboration between researchers and other actors mentioned above,
  • Involve early career scholars and practitioners, including in intergenerational partnerships,
  • Are led by scholars from low- and middle- income countries/the Global South.

And that:


  • Address barriers to effective use of research in policy and practice and means to overcome them,
  • Document and explain the exclusions of research from arenas where it could result in better forest management or improve lives and livelihoods,
  • Present cases of positive policy change that reflect good practice in research uptake,
  • Demonstrate collaborative approaches that have worked to bridge divides and/or show promise to do so,
  • Provide examples of collective action for systemic change that favors thriving human communities and forest landscapes, and/or
  • Highlight the voices, challenges, and successes of those who suffer most from forest loss and degradation, climate and environmental change, and restrictive policies.

2023 Annual Meeting Sub-Themes

  • Linking research and action for thriving forests, trees, and people
  • Democracy, journalism, and forest livelihoods
  • Joining climate and biodiversity goals through forests and trees
  • New directions in understanding forest-poverty dynamics
  • Youth movement: demographic change and next generation leadership on forests, climate, and development

  • Trees across rural-urban systems 
  • Bioeconomy, finance, and innovation for sustainable energy transitions
  • Social Justice in the Forest: Rights, Power, and Collaboration
  • Circular economy, markets, and forest livelihoods
  • Reforestation challenges and opportunities
  • Event Deadlines

    Subject to Change

    event

    date

    May 7, 2023

    Abstracts submissions due

    May 31, 2023

    Decision notifications on abstracts

    June 1, 2023

    Early bird registration begins

    October 11, 2023

    Submission deadline for meeting presentations

    2023 Coordination Committee

    Festus Amadu, University of Notre Dame

    Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti, CIFOR-ICRAF

    Rayna BenzeevUniversity of California, Berkeley
    Ida N. S. Djenontin, Pennsylvania State University

    Houria Djoudi, CIFOR-ICRAF

    Michael DoughertyCIFOR-ICRAF
    Amy Duchelle, Food and Agriculture Organization
    J.T Erbaugh, Dartmouth College
    Forrest Fleischman, University of Minnesota

    Anja GassnerGlobal Landscapes Forum
    Pamela Jagger, University of Michigan
    Daniel Miller, University of Notre Dame

    Katia Nakamura, University of Notre Dame

    Pete Newton, University of Colorado at Boulder

    Johan Oldekop, University of Manchester

    Susan OnyangoCIFOR-ICRAF
    Rose Pritchard, University of Manchester
    Pushpendra Rana, Indian Forest Service
    Jesse Ribot, American University
    Laura Sauls, George Mason University
    Etotépé Sogbohossou, University of Senghor & University of Abomey-Calavi

    Judith Sonneck, Global Landscapes Forum

    Gladman ThondhlanaRhodes University
    Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, South Dakota State University