Forests for Future: Halting Biodiversity Decline by Restoring Forest Ecosystems

This symposium is co-hosted by EXTRA – Existential Threats and Risks to All, an initiative of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), and EXALT – The Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative at the University of Helsinki. It's run with the TreesForDev research project and takes on a question that climate debates often skip: Can restoring forests really stop biodiversity loss, or does real ecological recovery take much more than planting trees? Forests are on the front lines of the climate crisis. Yet biodiversity loss and deforestation still get far less attention than they deserve, even though together they can drive ecosystem collapse. This second joint EXTRA/EXALT symposium starts from a major new IPBES report. It shows the economic risks of failing to act on the dramatic loss of ecosystem health that's already on record. 🔍 Key themes: -Deforestation and the political economy of resource extraction -Wildfires and their role in forest and biodiversity loss -Afforestation as a tool for climate mitigation and ecosystem restoration -Why ecological restoration takes more than planting trees -Which policies can best prevent further forest and biodiversity loss 🎙️ Moderators: Barry Gills: Professor Emeritus of Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki; co-founder, EXALT; EXTRA team; FWAAS; editor-in-chief, Globalizations Thomas Reuter: Chair, EXTRA; board and executive member, WAAS; anthropologist and Professor, University of Melbourne 👥 Speakers: Markus Kröger: Professor of Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki; studies the political economy of deforestation and resource extraction in the Amazon and Latin America Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes: Associate Professor, Department of Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics; studies "the pluriverse" and pathways to regenerative futures Maria Brockhaus: Professor of International Forest Policy, Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki; studies forests' role in climate mitigation and adaptation 🔗 More information & related content: EXTRA InfoHub: https://worldacademy.org/extra/ EXALT: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conference... TreesForDev: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgr... IPBES report: https://zenodo.org/records/17185117 📧 extra@worldacademy.org #Forests #Biodiversity #Deforestation #EcosystemRestoration #Afforestation #ClimateChange #ExistentialRisk #EXTRA #EXALT #TreesForDev #WorldAcademy #WAAS #IPBES #Extractivism #GlobalSouth