IFRI network members, including representatives from all but two CRCs, met at SESYNC in Annapolis, Maryland on Oct 28-31 for the second in three Venture Meetings on ‘Research on Forest Social Ecological Systems for Actionable Science’. They were joined by colleagues from CIFOR, ICRAF, UNESCO, the Rainforest Alliance, the Tenure and Global Climate Change Project, the Omidyar Network, and the Cargill Foundation. In total, 28 researchers and practitioners spent the four days discussing opportunities and challenges for research on forest commons. Highlights included 1) the presentation of a large dataset, extracted from the IFRI database, which will be publicly released in 2014; 2) the development and finalization of a set of streamlined IFRI data-collection instruments; 3) the development of opportunities to combine data collected by IFRI with those from partner organizations; and 4) an indicator development workshop, exploring possibilities for analysis of data on forest socio-ecological systems.

IFRI is grateful to SESYNC for providing such a great venue in which to discuss these important subjects. The next Venture meeting will revolve around the development of a series of papers that use the new dataset to examine and explain effective governance of community forests.

Read more about the meeting here.

The IFRI team at SESYNC