Forests as Capital: ISTF Yale Chapter Hosts Annual Conference at Kroon

Note: Yale School of the Environment (YSE) was formerly known as the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). News articles and events posted prior to July 1, 2020 refer to the School's name at that time.

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The Yale Chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) will host its 20th annual conference at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.
 
The conference, “Forests as Capital: Financial Mechanisms for Tropical Forest Conservation,” will explore conservation models that employ both the capital approach (top-down) and local approach (bottom up) to attract financing and generate sustainable revenues from forest resources.
 
The three-day event, held at Kroon Hall, will bring together representatives from international organizations, governments, financial institutions, and nonprofit groups with the common mission of building markets for conserving tropical forests.
 
“The visiting experts in the field of finance for tropical conservation will address crucial questions, including what tools are available, where have they been implemented, and how can they be accessed by communities and conservationists,” said Matthew Bare M.F.S. '14, ISTF Chapter President.
 
The conference will also award the first-ever ISTF Innovation Prize for outstanding ideas in forest conservation. The $5,000 prize is sponsored by the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
 
To register online, visit http://forestsascapital-istf.sites.yale.edu/ The conference will also be live streamed

FULL LIST OF EVENTS

Thursday, Jan. 30

5:00pm: Keynote Panel: Forests as Capital

Video Intrdoduction by Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Followed by a response by panelists, including:

·      Per F. I. Pharo, Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative, tasked with contributing up to 3 billion Norwegian kroners annually towards reducing GHG emissions from deforestation and land degradation in developing countries;
·      Carlos Klink, Brazilian Ministry of Environment’s National Secretary for Climate Change, who is in charge of coordinating Brazil’s National Plan to Combat Deforestation;
·      Michael Jenkins '88 M.F., President of Forest Trends, a non-profit striving to build markets that value of forests; and
·      Leslie Durschinger, Founder of Terra Global Capital, a global innovator in forest and land-use analytics and finance.

7:00pm: Reception
 

Friday, Jan. 31

8:00am: Breakfast

9:00am: Panel: International Capital 

10:45am: Breakout Discussions

12:00pm: Lunch

1:00pm: Mitigation Banking

2:00pm: Breakout

4:00pm: Final Presentations for Innovation Prize

5:00pm: Reception

7:00pm: IFSA Student Reunion


Sat., Feb. 1

8:30am: Breakfast

9:30am: Panel: Forestland Investment

11:00am: Concluding Remarks by Heather Wright '04 M.E.Sc., Environment Program Officer for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

12:00pm Innovation Prize Awarded

12:30pm: Lunch