Tropical Forest Resources and their Management: South Asia in Comparative PerspectiveA Student-led Conference at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

The Yale Student Chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) will be holding its Annual Conference on the 27th and 28th of March, 2009 at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Entitled �Conflict and Cooperation: Tools for Governing Tropical Forests, the two-day event will commence with a keynote address by Ed Barbier from the University of Wyoming, followed by a panel on Institutional and Governance Failures Driving Conflicts over Tropical Resources. Panel discussants include Chetan Kumar from the University of Cambridge, whose presentation is entitled �Betwixt and between customary and state imposed regulation: the political ecology of deforestation in Meghalaya, India, and Peter Cronkleton, from the Center for International Forestry Research�s Forests and Governance Program, who will speak on �Forest tenure security and Brazil nut gatherers in Bolivia�s Northern Amazon: Adaptive challenges from land reform for customary livelihoods�.

The second panel on the first day, made up of Bharat Kumar Pokharel, from Intercooperation Nepal, Erik Streed from USAID, and Iben Nathan from the Danish Centre for Forests, Landscapes, and Planning, will address the issue of Community Participation in Tropical Forest Governance: Pokharel will examine the effects of participatory forest resource governance in Nepal, Streed will discuss �Complexity and community forestry in West and Central Africa�, and Nathan will analyze the �Constraints and options for decentralized forest management in Cambodia�.

The second day of the conference will be kicked off by a panel discussion between Andrea Johnson from the Environmental Investigation Agency, Carolina Zambrano-Barragan from the World Conservation Union, South America, and Mariano C Cenamo, from the Institution for Conservation and Sustainable Development, on International Frameworks for Improving Tropical Forest Governance. Johnson will speak on �Forest governance down the supply chain: Commodities trade and the role of coherent demand-side policy models in addressing environmental crime and institutional corruption�; Zambrano-Barragan on �REDD�s applicability in Ecuador from a forest governance perspective�; and Cenamo on �Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (RED) in Southern Amazonas: challenges and caveats related to land tenure and governance.

The final panel on day two will examine the Role of the State and NGO�s in Forest Governance: Opportunities and Challenges. Kathleen McGinley, from the USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry will examine �Governmental and Non-Governmental Policies for Sustainable Forest Management in the Tropics: Policy Outputs, Execution, and Uptake in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua�; Joel Scriven, from the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, will present a paper entitled �Preparing for REDD: Forest governance challenges in Peru�s Central Selva; and Jordan Macknick, from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, will discuss �Transboundary Forestry and Water Management for Economic Development in Nicaragua and Honduras�. Closing the conference will be a concluding address by the keynote speaker Thomas Rudel of Rutgers University, entitled �A Tropical Forest Transition? REDD, Regrowth, and Conservation Opportunities�.

Since 1992, The ISTF Yale Student Chapter has organized a two-day conference each year to highlight new and important ideas in natural resource management. These conferences have traditionally brought together a diversity of participants representing governments, universities, as well as environmental and developmental organizations to discuss a range of topics including, natural resources management in areas of conflict, the private sector and tropical forest stewardship, Himalayan conservation and development, the role of indigenous knowledge in economic development, and transboundary conservation areas.

The first student chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) was organized at Yale in 1989, as part of a network of natural resource professionals concerned with tropical resource management. ISTF provides a forum for students with interests and experiences in linking natural resource conservation and management with economic development. Members participate in a range of social, educational, and professional activities that promote the sharing of experiences and knowledge related to resource management in developing countries. Members of ISTF at Yale also contribute to the development of new policies and curriculum in the tropical studies program at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

The International Society of Tropical Foresters is a nonprofit organization formed in the 1950s in Washington, D.C., by tropical forester, Tom Gill. Having grown in response to a worldwide concern for the fate of tropical and subtropical forests, ISTF is committed to the protection, wise management and rational use of the world�s tropical forests. ISTF is dedicated to providing a communications network for tropical forestry disciplines.

The annual ISTF conference at Yale has been made possible through support from the ITSF Student Organizing Committee, the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and the South Asian Studies Council, amongst others.