Focali Annual Meeting 2025

For over 15 years, Focali has bridged forest, climate, biodiversity, and livelihoods research with policy and practice. Such safe spaces for mutual learning across disciplines and sectors are more needed than ever. Therefore, we invite you to join this year’s Focali Annual Meeting, offering an opportunity for networking and knowledge exchange, and a space where you can contribute to and benefit from, the shared insights. Read more about the event below and stay tuned for the final program and announcement of speakers on this page.  

The annual meeting will include:

• Pitches and speed talks by Focali researchers and partners based on open call for talks
• A research - policy - practice dialogue taking us from Cali to Belem 
• Updates on Focali innovations, such as our new work streams and partnerships
• Space for actors to express their interests, needs, and knowledge gaps
• A forum for early career researchers and professionals to connect on common interests
• Interactive world café discussions on critical issues on our minds in these times
• Informal networking, mingling, and developing of new collaborations

During a part of the day, we will be traveling from Cali to Belem via Windhoek guided by experts from different sectors, to reflect on these milestone events and synergies between them. 2024 was a crucial year for global environmental governance, as it was a ‘triple COP year’ with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP16 took place in Cali, the UN Convention on Combating Desertification’s COP16 in Riyadh, and the Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP29 in Baku. Science and current global developments show how these Rio conventions and themes are intertwined, as underscored by the recent approval of two landmark assessments at the IPBES meeting in Windhoek. The Nexus Assessment explores the interlinkages between crises in biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate change, whereas the Transformative Change Assessment focuses on underlying drivers of biodiversity loss and the system-wide changes needed to address them.

These events and new assessments provide a significant moment to pause and take stock of current developments in global environmental governance, on the progress that has been made and challenges remaining: How do last year’s COPs and IPBES assessments relate to each other, and what do they mean for forests, biodiversity, climate and livelihoods? How can synergies be enabled when silos are still the norm? And how can social dimensions, and the rights and knowledges of Indigenous and local communities be better integrated?

These are some of the topics that we will draw attention to on our journey from Cali to the climate change COP30 in Belem later this year. We will hear from diverse experts who have been part of policy negotiations, the IPBES assessments, or worked with these complex issues in research and practice at different levels across the globe. 

The puzzle of how current trends, such as increasing polarization, turbulent geopolitics, and global cooperation being in a state of flux, add complexity to these research - policy - practice interactions will be the backdrop for our discussions during the day. Together, we will identify critical issues that need more attention ahead, and discuss our roles in this context to explore how to best contribute on the paths towards more sustainable and just futures. 

For more information, go to the event page here.

Annual meeting days:

The open day of the Focali annual meeting March 13 is outlined above and more details about the program and speakers will soon be added. For this day we welcome all members, partners, and friends that would like to join. Seats are limited. So, sign up if you wish to attend and please cancel your registration if your plans change.

The internal day of the Focali annual meeting will be held the day after on March 14. This day is mainly reserved for Focali members and partners. We will discuss joint initiatives and collaborations, such as the new Focali work streams and strategic issues for the network’s future.

If you are a researcher within the Focali focus areas and are interested in becoming a network member, you are very welcome to join us for the internal day! Please reach out for more information on how to engage. Or if you are a partner or actor working on the Focali themes welcome to reach out, we would be pleased to discuss joint collaborations ahead!

Contact: Maria Ölund, Focali Project Manager maria.olund@gu.se

The SIANI and Focali annual meetings 2025 held back-to-back:

To enable exchanges across networks and interlinked themes the Focali and SIANI annual meetings will be held back-to-back this year. The SIANI annual meeting will be held on March 12, at the same venue in central Stockholm to make it easy for travellers arriving by train. To read about the SIANI annual meeting and register please visit their event page. Focali and SIANI have been close partners since 2013.