Fifteenth Annual Meeting of MegaFlorestais:

The Evolution of Forest Management on the Path to 2030

The fifteenth meeting of MegaFlorestais was held in the state of Pará, in northcentral Brazil from August 1922, 2024. The week’s activities were hosted by the Brazilian Forest Service, led by Director Garo BatmanianThe meeting began in Alter do Chão on Day I and a field trip to the Tapajós National Forest on Day IIThe week included two nights traveling by riverboat on the Tapajós River with stops in the Coroca community on Day III and Casa do Saulo on Day IVForest agency leaders and resource advisors participated from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Nepal, Peru, Sweden, and the United States.

Topics discussed 

  • Top priorities of forest agencies around the world 
  • Global issues, forest product trends, and ecosystem market trends  
  • Challenges and opportunities for nature-based markets  
  • Socioeconomic initiatives led by communities in the Tapajós region 
  • The impact of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendent Peoples in accelerating forest conservation 
  • The importance of tenure rights to forest conservation 
  • Political transitions and other challenges

Field trip

On the second day of the MegaFlorestais meeting, the group left Alter do Chão for a twohour drive to the Tapajós National Forest where we convened at the offices of COOMFLONA, a coop composed of Indigenous Peoples and local communities who live within the National Forest and have the exclusive right to commercialize the timber and natural resources produced by the forest. There the group learned about their forest management plan and timber chain of custody, visited the carpentry workshop, and learned about the history and governance of the community-led cooperative. 

Resources

Presentations