We are introducing IUFRO Campfire Chats, a spinoff of Branching out: the forest podcast, where each episode starts with a timely forest-related news item, then moves to a roundtable with three perspectives - an IUFRO scientist, a practitioner, and a policy expert - delving beyond the headlines to clarify complex issues.

In a world increasingly shaped by natural disasters—including severe thunderstorms, wildfires, and devastating earthquakes—understanding the connection between human systems and forests is more urgent than ever. According to reinsurer Munich RE, natural disasters caused $131 billion in losses in just the first half of 2025, making resilience a major focus. 

Forests as Lifelines After Shocks, the very first episode, explores how communities bounce back when confronted with rising climate pressure and political uncertainty. The discussion moves beyond a narrow definition of ecosystem health to explore resilience as the measure of a system’s ability to cope with disturbance and change without collapsing, aligned with IUFRO's 2025 study, Forests as Pillars of Social and Economic Resilience prepared as part of the Global Forest Expert Panels (GFEP) initiative. 

The hosts Jose Bolaños and Viola Belohrad, both IUFRO, invited three voices to the campfire: Anne Larson, CIFOR-ICRAF, a scientist who co-led a chapter of the new GFEP Resilience Report; Sita Aryal, Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN), who is working directly with forest-dependent communities; and Fabiola Muñoz-Dodero, former Peruvian Minister of Environment and Agriculture, a policy expert shaping frameworks that support sustainable development. 

Together, they unpack the challenges, share stories, and look at what resilience really means—socially and economically.

Tune in to IUFRO Campfire CHATS! Listen wherever you enjoy your podcasts, on our website, Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to follow us!