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Caribbean Foresters

Status
Ongoing
Start Date
January, 1982
A map of regional participation in the 2013 Caribbean Foresters Meeting.

Caribbean Foresters Meetings (CFM) can serve to improve the availability of forest-dynamics information for Caribbean Forest professionals, assist with capacity building, and develop management strategies adaptable to the changing economic and climatic scenarios with which forest conservation is faced. CFM participants are engaged in the study, sustainable management, and protection of forests in the Caribbean region. All Caribbean Foresters members—among them natural resources specialists, including foresters, researchers, and educators—share a dedication to understanding Caribbean forests. Since 1982, the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, in collaboration with many regional entities and organizations, has sponsored and organized meetings that bring together foresters, researchers, and government officials from the Caribbean region. The CFMs provide a unique opportunity for participants to share forest research and management case-studies, site descriptions, recent reports, papers, and other relevant information from their respective countries. There is a sense of connection among members promoted by the active exchange of ideas and the facilitation of discussions at the meetings. These active exchanges help to generate a series of conclusions and recommendations related to the meetings’ topics that keeps CFM meeting agendas current. These meetings seek to gather and integrate the knowledge and experiences collected at different sites in order to work toward common goals and objectives at the Caribbean regional scale.

Information sharing among Caribbean Foresters members is vital to promoting the objectives of their regional meetings. The Caribbean Foresters convene to meet 4 primary objectives:

    1) Bring together the region’s practitioners and researchers in forestry and natural-resource sectors to better address common problems;

    2) Identify and establish training programs for young foresters;

    3) Share data regarding the effects of disturbances on forests and watersheds, as well as report on subsequent regeneration; and

    4) Develop a system of communication, information sharing, and data processing for the region. 

Participants of the 2016 Caribbean Forester's Meeting

During the 16th Caribbean Forester's Meeting that took place on 4–9 August 2013 in the Dominican Republic, participants presented posters and oral presentations and met during working-group discussions on the theme of advancing the understanding of Caribbean forest dynamics and the importance of creating long-term regional networks to promote scientific-data analysis (Figs. 1, 3, 4). As part of the meeting’s agenda, there was a scientific workshop focused on assessment of long-term forest dynamcs in the Caribbean. This workshop aimed to facilitate data analysis by identifying and registering sites for inclusion in regional analyses. As a result of this workshop, participants of the 16th CFM identified over 70 forest sites with permanent plots in the region through tools available at the Caribbean Foresters website. In addition, CFM participants defined 5 working groups. 

These working groups focused on 

  1. Forestry training opportunities and capacity building
  2. National forests inventories
  3. Biomass and species studies across islands
  4. Mangroves and dry forests
  5. Collaboration and information-sharing agreement among Caribbean foresters.

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Last updated July 23, 2024
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