Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Blog

Before I became deeply embedded in the sphere of environmental policy, I used to be a chemical ecologist who spent two summers researching the Costa Rican and Ecuadorian tropics.  Yesterday, I decided it was time to go back to my "roots," and attend a session of the International Society of Tropical Forests conference.  I landed in a workshop on Intellectual Property Rights and Ethics led by New York Botanical Garden's Ina Vandebroek, who is an ethnomedical research specialist.

Every day a new picture is painted and framed, held up for half an hour, in such lights as the Great Artist chooses, and then withdrawn, and the curtain falls. And then the sun goes down, and long the afterglow gives light. Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862).

Each of the 98 pictures tell the story of the students who are studying at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies as they did in the past and during the years prior to that. These are the stories of adventurous professional lives before being FES students, and of serendipitous encounters while doing summer research as FES students. Every picture is a reminder of memories that the students wish to retain forever and stories that they would like to share with others.

"When we look at forests, we see them as systems in progress, they are under construction".

This is what Robin concluded near the end of her presentation, while showing the audience a photo of a lush, green forest, with a yellow “Under Construction” sign in the middle. Entertaining, engaging, and educational, Robin spoke of the checklist for successful natural regeneration, using examples from all over the world, largely from Central and Latin America where much of her research focuses. Some of these tools included beneficial topsoil, weed suppressing plants, fire protection, and animal diversity. “You need the whole tropic system, to get a forest back”, she said. Everyone nodded. We know the importance of bugs; even if we don’t want them in our kitchens, we need them in our forests. Robin also talked of the importance of indigenous knowledge. Later panel presenters such as Zoraida Calle, Laura Snook and Aerin Jacob reiterated the need to retain local knowledge. Governments are not always the ones who benefit from reforestation, and they are definitely not the ones putting in the hard labor. It seems important to incorporate local knowledge with scientific research, but how do we do this? One example of how Robin has worked to integrate these approaches is through the newly formed neoSelvas network (http://www.neoselvas.org/). They are seeking to bring together people from many fields and disciplines to integrate ecology and forestry with social and political knowledge of the tropics. I hope interested parties join and participate in this network.

The 18th Annual International Society of Tropical Foresters Conference has begun! Last night we enjoyed our opening Jan McAlpine, and our skype presentation by David Lamb, then joined together for poster presentations and a reception in beautiful, LEED certified Kroon Hall. During this time, many people enjoyed the student photographs on view in the hallway outside of Burke Auditorium. I encourage participants of the contest to cast their vote for their favorite!