Organization
Host Institutions
ATBC2027 is co-hosted by CENAREST, the Congo Basin Institute (CBI), and the One Forest Vision initiative (OFVi).
Photo: David Stanley / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation is co-hosted by three institutions committed to advancing tropical science and conservation in the Congo Basin.
National Center for Scientific and Technological Research (CENAREST)
CENAREST is a government research institution founded in Libreville, Gabon, in 1976 to foster scientific advancement and technological innovation across a diverse array of research areas, including environmental science, food technology, and agricultural studies. It operates through a network of five research institutions, including the Institut de Recherche en Écologie Tropicale (IRET), which focuses on the study of biodiversity, conservation, and the sustainable use of tropical ecosystems.
CENAREST also plays a pivotal role in developing local research capabilities — such as at the University of Omar Bongo — supporting undergraduate and graduate programs and informing national policies for sustainable land-use planning and climate resilience strategies. It is a member of the Science Panel for the Congo Basin (SPCB) and the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI), an independent, scientist-led platform that promotes long-term investment in science in the Congo Basin. CENAREST is also a focal point of the One Forest Vision initiative (OFVi) and among the leading scientific voices advocating for the importance of the Congo Basin rainforest in forums such as the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) meetings and the international climate and biodiversity COPs.
Congo Basin Institute (CBI)
CBI was created in 2015 as a joint initiative between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It offers a one-of-a-kind center to address critical challenges related to food and water security, climate change, biodiversity loss, public health, and emerging diseases, while advancing local scientific research and capacity in the region. Based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, CBI leverages the existing infrastructure and resources of the IITA campus in sub-Saharan Africa to promote interregional collaboration and serves as a regional hub for interdisciplinary research, education, training, and technology development addressing key challenges facing the Congo Basin.
In 2024, CBI led the PAN-tropical investigation of bioGeochemistry and Ecological Adaptation (PANGEA), a NASA-funded scoping study for a decadal Terrestrial Ecology campaign in the tropics. PANGEA engaged an international community of over 800 people, organizing over 15 workshops and town halls across the American, African, and Asian tropics, with active involvement in about 20 conferences and more than 150 bilateral meetings — including a 2.5-day workshop in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with over 100 attendees.
One Forest Vision initiative (OFVi)
OFVi was launched in 2023 during the One Forest Summit in Libreville. The initiative aims to provide scientific support to countries in the tropical basins to preserve the environmental integrity and irreplaceable biodiversity of tropical forests and wetlands, and to monitor carbon reservoirs in these basins. Pioneered by six major French research bodies (CEA, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, MNHN), its implementation in the Congo Basin is supported by French government funding and developed in collaboration with more than 20 research institutions in partnering countries — notably CENAREST, AGEOS, and the National Parks Agency (ANPN) in Gabon.
OFVi has organized annual meetings in Bordeaux (September 2024) and Montpellier (September 2025), France, with around 100 attendees, as well as three bilateral workshops in Gabon (Libreville, November 2023, 50 attendees; Ipassa, September 2024, 30 attendees; Libreville, March 2025, 50 attendees) and Congo (Brazzaville, July 2024, 60 attendees) to reflect on the research agenda, vegetation and carbon monitoring, and wildlife management. In collaboration with the French Academy of Sciences and GEO-TREES, OFVi also hosted a major event in Paris in 2025 on the reliable quantification of carbon based on ground observation in African tropical forests, with more than 70 attendees.