Imagination and Innovation for Forests and Livelihoods –
Forests are under strain across the globe from new and long-standing pressures. So, too, many of the hundreds of millions of people who enjoy and depend on forests for their well-being. The way forward to understand and tackle challenges to forests and people will require imagination. Innovation will also be important. But innovation comes in many forms and some claims to novelty may not be so innovative if a wider lens or longer historical view is taken. Still, other socio-technological developments– advances in remote sensing, artificial intelligence, drones, blockchain, and more– are clearly new. What is the effect of such innovations? What is their promise or peril? How are they reshaping what we might imagine about the relationship between forests, trees, and people?