Focali session at the GLP Week of Land System Science 2026

Cultivating a collective effort, a Mutirão for protecting forests and forest-reliant communities across disciplines, sectors, and regions Rooted in South American Indigenous practices, a mutirão is a collective effort – when community members jointly tackle shared challenges. A similar spirit and spaces are also needed to protect the world’s forests and forest-reliant communities, by collectively bringing knowledge and actions together across disciplines, sectors, and regions. This is critical for mitigating and adapting to climate change, securing the food system and communities’ livelihoods. Initiatives addressing these issues too often remain siloed, despite well-intentioned programs, thus failing to address critical parts of the underlying systems. In this session, we aim to address these issues holistically by consolidating the biophysical, social, economic, and political perspectives. Building on the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Forests, Climate, and Livelihoods (Focali) Research Network in Sweden, during which we gathered scientists, advisors, policy makers, and practitioners, we will collectively reflect on the complex challenges forested land systems face. The session will address four main themes, each covered in 15-min slots, concluded by plenary discussions; (1) forest conservation: current developments, policies, and ways forward, (2) forest restoration: aligning global goals with local contexts, (3) bringing people, their rights, and relation with nature back into focus (4) conserving and restoring forests participatorily and with care through knowledge weaving. Session outline: Wednesday, 17 June at 4:15–5:30 PM CEST Moderator: Agnes Pranindita Focali introduction and glimpse from the annual meeting, Maria Ölund Forest-climate-livelihoods-food interconnection, Agnes Pranindita Tropical deforestation – drivers and policy responses, Martin Persson & Malaika Yanou Forest and ecosystem restoration, Laura Kmoch & Harry Fischer Social dimensions of biodiversity, Stephen Woroniecki & Hanna Ekström Weaving of knowledges, Taís González & (Maria Ölund for Carlos Vélez & Torsten Krause) Q&A and closing All speakers are members in the Focali research network, see their affiliations below: Agnes Pranindita Post doc Stockholm Resilience Centre SRC Maria Ölund Focali Network Manager, University of Gothenburg Martin Persson Professor at Chalmers University of Technology Malaika Yanou Post doc at Chalmers and visiting researcher Stockholm Environment Institute Laura Kmoch, Research Associate, Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems, University of Göttingen and University of Kassel, Germany Harry Fischer, Associate Professor, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, SLU Stephen Woroniecki, Research Fellow, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences University of Glasgow Hanna Ekström Pigot PhD graduate, Dept of Political Science, Lund university Carlos Alberto Hernandez Vélez, PhD student LUCSUS Torsten Krause Associate Professor and Deputy Director LUCSUS Lund University Taís Sonetti González, Postdoctoral Researcher at Unicamp - AmazonFACE https://www.focali.se/events/focali-o...