The FLARE Flyer
Volume 1, Issue 4
December 2024
Dear FLARE Friends:
We are pleased to present to you the fourth and last installment of our quarterly newsletter for 2024. The newsletter is also available on the FLARE Website.
As 2024 draws to a close, we reflect and give gratitude for you and all who make FLARE a such a vital and vibrant Network. Your work to advance knowledge and action on forest livelihood issues worldwide is an inspiration. Thank you!
We hope you enjoy the contents of this edition of the FLARE Flyer, including videos and other resources from our 10th Anniversary meeting In Rome, Special Issue calls for papers, FLARE personnel news, job opportunities and more. We invite you to share this newsletter with your colleagues and networks and publish the link on your organization’s website.
Please stay tuned for an announcement in early January of the 2025 FLARE Annual Meeting dates and location.
Wishing you a holiday season filled with peace and joy!
Daniel C. Miller, FLARE Coordinator, and all the FLARE Secretariat
2024 Annual Meeting Wrap-Up
Meeting Highlights
The 2024 Annual Meeting included more than 150 presentations, posters, innovative sessions and workshops combined. Be sure to check out a selection of photos from the 10th Annual Meeting along with the Book of Abstracts from the conference.
The Annual Meeting was marked by a variety of insightful discussions and presentations. Notable highlights included the keynote addresses by Rukka Sombolinggi, Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, and Dr. Melissa Leach, the Executive Director of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. The forty-two parallel sessions fostered rich discussions on community governance, innovative approaches to environmental challenges, conservation, community planning tools and much more. Emerging topics were highlighted this year in Rome, including mangroves, traditional ecological knowledge and science and forest fires.
Keynote and Plenary Sessions
Whether you made it to Rome or not, we invite you to view this year’s plenary videos, along with those from year’s past, on our website.
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Rukka Sombolinggi
The opening Keynote Address by Rukka Sombolinggi, Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of Archipelago (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara/AMAN), Indonesia, highlights the struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia and elsewhere in confronting the contemporary crisis. She challenges us to be “bold in our imagination, fierce in our innovation, and unwavering in our commitment to justice.”
Watch Rukka’s Keynote Address and the ensuing panel session
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Melissa Leach
In the second keynote address by Dr. Melissa Leach, Executive Director of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, she shares her reflections on justice, community and culture from West Africa and beyond. Her conviction is that among the many crises that we are dealing with, the challenge before us is to move beyond forest livelihoods to forest lifeways and safeguard hopeful, caring futures for forests and their inhabitants.
Watch Melissa’s keynote address
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Closing Plenary Panel
A diverse panel of experts shared their perspectives on the “Future of Forest Livelihoods” moderated by Reem Hajjar, Associate Professor, Forest Ecosystems & Society, Oregon State University. Joining Reem were:
Jonathan Rigg, Professor and Chair in Human Geography, University of Bristol, UK
Sarobidy Rakotonarivo, Research Fellow and Lead, Mitsilo Research Group, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar
Hugo Jabini, Human Rights Defender, Association of Saamaka Communities, Surinam
Eva Marie Garces-Foley, Student Researcher and Activist, University of Notre Dame, USA
James Connell, Strategy & Multilaterals, International Forests Unit, FCDO & DESNZ, UK
Watch the Closing Plenary with Q&A
Annual Meeting Photos
Experience Rome again by visiting our website to see a collection of photos from the 2024 Annual Meeting. Click the photo below to see more!
FLARE Firsts: Those raising their hands were attending a FLARE Annual Meeting for the first time. Photo by Alessandro Sgarito
Student Award Winners
Best Oral Presentation
Congratulations to Carlos Alberto Hernandez-Velez for winning the best Student Oral Presentation award at the 2024 Annual Meeting. Carlos is a doctoral student at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS). He explores the role that Indigenous Traditional Knowledge plays in the regulation of wildlife consumption in the Colombian Amazon. In 2016, he received a merit magister degree for participatory research around the local regulation of wildlife use, in an isolated multiethnic tribe in Colombian Amazon. Carlos has also worked on nature documentaries as a National Geographic Scientific Advisor, notably for a “Real Bugs Life,” streaming now on Disney Plus. Carlos won the award for his work titled ”Exchanging researcher seats: Collaboration with Indigenous researchers for sustainable wildlife management.”
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Best Lightning Talk or Poster
Congratulations to Elliot Convery Fisher, for winning the Best Student Lightning Talk or Poster award at the 2024 Annual Meeting. Elliot Convery Fisher is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh and Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh. He is a conservation scientist who specializes in combining qualitative and quantitative methods to study socio-ecological systems. Currently, his research examines fire use in grasslands and savannahs and the effect of fire on rare plants. He uses this work to inform conservation efforts to support people and plants in endangered fire-driven ecosystems. Elliot won the award for his work titled “Participatory Mapping Reveals Conflicting Perceptions of Fire Drivers: Implications for Conservation Management.”
FLARE-Supported Special Issues
Trends in Forest Livelihoods Research, Forest Policy and Economics
FLARE’s latest special issue, “Trends in Forest Livelihoods Research,” has recently been published with 18 articles exploring current research at the forest-livelihoods nexus. This is an annual series organized by FLARE in partnership with the journal Forest Policy and Economics. The next issue is in process and the deadline to submit is now extended to 31 December 2024.
Submit your article for consideration today!
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Forest Sector Work, Forest Policy and Economics
Announcing an opportunity to contribute to “Taking stock of work and employment research in the forest sector.” If your research focuses on employment, green jobs, gender, well-being in the workplace, working conditions, labour market, labour statistics, informal economy, decent work, education & training etc., please share your insights and help shape the future of this research field. The deadline for submission has been extended to 31 May 2025.
Submit your article for consideration today!
In the Network
The Secretariat is excited to share that Dr. Arun Agrawal, FLARE Steering Committee member and founder of the Network, will be joining the University of Notre Dame as the inaugural director of the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative! The University-wide initiative is a key priority in the University’s strategic framework, as it draws inspiration from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and aims to transform how students and faculty at Notre Dame engage with sustainability research and practice.
Highlighted Researcher
Dr. Karen Bailey is an Assistant Professor in the Department Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She earned a PhD from the University of Florida in interdisciplinary ecology and has a background in wildlife ecology and conservation with expertise on human-environment interactions, equitable conservation, and justice, accessibility, and inclusion in STEM and natural resources fields. She has been a member of the FLARE network since 2022 and has interests in climate adaptation and resilience and human-wildlife conflict and coexistence in forest ecosystems. Karen is also the lead of the newly formed FLARE working group “Forest Livelihoods in a Changing Climate.”
Read Karen’s research below!
Woodlot management and livelihoods in a tropical conservation landscape
Wildlife impacts and vulnerable livelihoods in a transfrontier conservation landscape
Job Opportunities
Join the CIFOR-ICRAF Team!
Two positions are open at the Delhi, India Headquarters
Finance Intern. If you’re passionate about financial reporting and want to contribute to the non-profit sector, this is the perfect opportunity. Gain valuable experience in managing donor reports, verifying expenditures, and working alongside a dynamic finance team.
Internal Audit Intern. Do you have an eye for detail and want to develop skills in internal auditing? Work with our team to prepare audit documentation, assist in data analysis, and maintain internal records in SharePoint.
Apply by 22 December 2024
Check out other open vacancies at CIFOR-ICRAF in countries around the world.
Fellowship Opportunity
Applications are open for the 2025 Kinship Conservation Fellowship! Kinship Conservation is looking for conservation leaders with at least 5 years of experience who are interested in the application of market-based solutions to solve environmental problems. The 2025 program runs June 29 – July 29 at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, USA.
Click here for more information.
Applications due 12 January 2025
Upcoming Conferences of Interest
2nd Annual National Sustainability Society National Conference
Achieving sustainability, viewed as balancing social, economic, and environmental goals over time, requires transformative change. Current trajectories of change across these goals are rushing the planet and its people headlong towards biodiversity loss, climate change, socio-political polarization, and pollution. But these outcomes are not inevitable. Actions and choices for a different future, from the individual to organizational and societal levels and from nearer to the longer-term futures, have the power to ameliorate or reverse these outcomes. The second Annual National Sustainability Society conference will invite participation and contributions focusing on transformative change for a just and sustainable future.
Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
20-23 October 2025
Click here for more information
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11th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2025)
The Society for Ecological Restoration’s (SER) World Conference is an exciting and inspiring biennial gathering of global experts in restoration, making SER2025 the premier venue for those interested in being active members of the global restoration community.
Denver, Colorado, USA
30 September – 4 October 2025
Submit your abstract for consideration today!
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Sustainable Development of the Global Teak Sector – Adapting to Future Markets and Environments
In 2025, Kerala, India will host the 5th World Teak Conference organized by the Kerala Forest Research Institute and coordinated by the International Teak Information Network (TEAKNET) India. This global event will take place at the Grand Hyatt, Kochi, Kerala
Cochin, Kerala, India
17-20 September 2025
Click here for more information
