Focali Annual Meeting 2026 – A Mutirão for Forests, Climate and Livelihoods
The rallying call for a global mutirão – by Brazil for the world to embrace the spirit of collective action - is one of the strong takeaways from COP30, the first climate COP in the Amazon. Rooted in Indigenous practices across South America, a mutirão is a collective effort when a community comes together and everyone rolls up their sleeves to tackle shared challenges. This call inspires, ignites constructive hope and corresponds well with the Focali community spirit of coming together to enhance knowledge and joint action on intertwined and increasing global challenges. Our network is a trusted knowledge partner, offering an evidence-based space for exchange across disciplines, sectors and regions. We now invite our members, partners, friends and neighbors to the Focali annual meeting 2026 – a mutirão for Forests, Climate, Biodiversity and Livelihoods.
The program of the annual meeting will be developed around options for action in a rapidly changing world, based on what our members, partners, friends and neighbors will bring to this mutirão – new ideas and topics as well as issues related to current Focali workstreams, collaborations and windows for research–policy–practice dialogues. The contributions and talks are collected via this open call for input to the annual meeting.
The first day will be an open full-day symposium with keynotes, roundtables and parallel sessions drawn from submitted contributions and talks. On the following day, sleeves will be rolled up even higher to transform ideas and research into new collaborations, enhanced capacity and greater joint action to face current challenges in our field.
Book the days and approximate times:
April 16, 9.30 – 17.00 at the World Culture Museum in Gothenburg, joint dinner at own cost
April 17, 9.00 – 14:00 venue tba (internal sessions for Focali members and collaborators)
Contribute via the open call for ideas and talks:
Submit input as talks and roundtables to the program via this open call - survey. Welcome to reflect freely on what you can and want to contribute with to this mutirão and connect with the Focali network manager Maria Ölund to bounce any bigger ideas and contributions you may have for the meeting, the network and news collaborations maria.olund@gu.se
Co-arrangers and invited participants:
The Focali annual meeting will be arranged in collaboration by the Focali secretariat, advisory group, members as well as partners and the Focali – SIANI collaboration. After two annual meetings held in Stockholm, as Focali2025, this annual meeting mutirão will be held in Gothenburg. Anyone active in research, policy or practice within the Focali focus areas are welcome to join the open day of the annual meeting. This meeting is in-person only and Focali does not have the capacity to support travel costs of participants. Other activities as webinars and events outside Sweden will be arranged 2026.
Registration to the annual meeting will be opened in February
Submit your contributions and interest to attend in this survey
Stay tuned for the program to be developed based on the open call for contributions
Mutirão - theme inspiration:
Inspiration to the theme of this annual meeting emerged from discussions held at the webinar Focali co-arranged after COP30 in Brazil, the recording can be re-watched on the Focali you tube and reflections from members who participated in Belém are available here. In these times with rising challenges at different levels calling for a mutirão, where the Focali community and new friends come together and roll up our sleeves to develop new alliances and joint action ahead, is greatly needed. We hope that this can contribute to mutually beneficial collaborations for all involved and greater impact on shared global challenges.
Past annual meetings:
Read about the last annual meeting held in Stockholm in March 2025 here and re-watch talks on the Focali you tube.
Hear what Focali members and partners share about the value of Focali in this video from the 2023 annual meeting.
Photos above from the 2025 annual meeting by Maria Ölund