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Research and capacity building for forest landscape restoration in Rwanda: An exchange between scientists, practitioners, and students from Yale and Rwanda at Yale University

Details

In-Person Event (New Haven, Connecticut)
February 2-7, 2026
ELTI, WCS-ELTI
Contact:
Gbachmann@wcs.org
Native tree species planted on steep slopes around Gishwati forest, Gishwati-Mukura National Park, begin to resemble early successional forest and provide wildlife habitat.
Gracie Bachmann

Note: Yale School of the Environment (YSE) was formerly known as the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). News articles and events posted prior to July 1, 2020, refer to the School's name at that time.

Summary

This week-long in-person event hosted by ELTI on Yale’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, will provide an opportunity to bring together Rwanda-based researchers and practitioners, Yale School of Environment faculty, staff, and students, and the Yale community. A cohort of five scientists and practitioners visiting from Rwanda will be joined by incoming ELTI Rwanda program manager Grace Bachmann and the ELTI team based in New Haven, CT. This event is designed to:
  • Promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge to advance research and training in native species reforestation.
  • Explore possible collaboration among scholars, researchers, practitioners, and students on Rwanda-based research projects.
  • Provide Rwanda-based researchers and practitioners with contacts, information, and examples for building their institutional capacity and training/learning opportunities.

Content

The event, hosted by ELTI’s New Haven-based team, will include the following: 
  • Field trip to Yale-Myers Forest to learn about New England forestry, silviculture, and maple syrup production, weather permitting.*
  • Collaborative workshop to share advances, troubleshoot challenges, and discuss innovative approaches to native species reforestation research. Register here.
  • Participation in the BIOMES speaker series, Yale School of Environment's flagship weekly research series. Register here.
  • Participation in a Forest Landscape Restoration Panel for YSE students. Register here.
  • Participation in the Native Species Reforestation Symposium. Register here.
  • Participation in ELTI's Tropical Forest Landscape Restoration Reception. Register here.
  • Opportunities for Yale students and faculty to engage with the Rwandan delegation via informal meetings.
  • Participation in the annual International Society for Tropical Foresters (ISTF) conference—The Tropical Forest Leadership Summit. Register here.
*The visit to YMF will also include discussions about how the teaching model inspired ELTI’s global training landscapes approach and how best it can be adapted to the Rwandan context. YMF functions as a laboratory for teaching, management, and research for students, scientists, and New England landowners. Yale-Myers, where active management, interdisciplinary research, and local knowledge converge, inspired the training landscapes central to ELTI’s place-based training approach. Across each ELTI program, model farms, demonstration sites, and protected areas all form part of the learning laboratories, or training landscapes, and are the core of ELTI’s blended and field-based courses, collaborative research and knowledge co-creation projects, as well as Leadership Program support.
 
This knowledge exchange is funded with generous support from the Yale and The World Partnership Fund and the Yale Forest Forum.