The different areas of expertise presented by the panelists, the intensive discussions following each topic, and the art to eventually sort, combine and conclude every presentation, made this workshop my highlight so far.

Beside the great job of the presenters, two more reasons why it succeeded in my mind were:

1st. The discussions that critically analyzed the research finding and its (limited) impact on development

2nd. The closeness and approachability of the panel experts concearning ideas and knowledge exchange during the coffe break and afterwards.

Diving deeper into the content of the workshop:

Under the umbrella of the question "How can we conserve tropical trees and forests while using them, too?", a broad range of topics emerged relating to:

genetic diversity

prioritizing areas for conservation

the limitations of genetic research

re-establishing traditional knowledge

enabling factors for successful community forestry

the importance of a stronger "research-development" linkage.

While participating in the workshop, caught up by the topics, I noticed I ended up writing 7 Pages of important information I wanted to use for the Student Reporters' Blog. And yet, given the nature of a blog to be published on time, I realized it would have been impossible to summarize the key findings in a satisfying way for all the readers.

To everyone who is interested in the content of the workshop and would like to see the presentations of the panelists, I am happy to hand over their main topics by creating a link in this post during the next days. If you are similarly interested in this workshop, as I am, you can just bookmark this post in order to be updated.

I am looking forward to experiencing more contributions like this one and to keeping you all informed on forest-related topics in the coming days :)

More pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tropentag/albums/72157672917894522/with/29...

Hope to see you around!