On 16 July 2026, the One Forest Vision initiative and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) organised the first Gabonese edition of a Walk & Talk at the Raponda Walker Arboretum. For the course of a morning, researchers, PhD students, diplomats and conservation practitioners left the meeting rooms to engage in direct discussions in the field, in the heart of one of Gabon’s main protected areas.

In May 2026, the MOUNDS* and RACINES** projects, supported by the One Forest Vision initiative and the French Embassy’s BGF-SCAC programme***, carried out a three-week scientific mission in the Likouala-Mossaka region, in the north of the Republic of the Congo. This field campaign, involving researchers from several disciplines, aimed to gain a better understanding of the long-standing interactions between human societies and the forest and wetland ecosystems of the Congo Basin. At the heart of the research were raised fields – impressive agricultural structures built to enable cultivation in areas subject to seasonal flooding. These structures, some of which may date back more than 800 years, bear witness to a human and environmental history far more complex than previously imagined.

Supported by the One Forest Vision (OFVi) initiative, the 2026 edition of the Forest & People Summer Institute, organised by François Libois (PSE and INRAE) at the Paul-Langevin Centre of the CAES (CNRS) in Aussois (Savoie), brought together around sixty researchers and PhD students from universities and research institutes around the world for a week. From Duke University to the University of São Paulo, via Marien Ngouabi University, the University of Namur and several French and European national research organisations, this summer school fostered fruitful exchanges between scientific communities with complementary areas of expertise.