The Forests Dialogue (TFD) was established in 2000 to provide international leaders in the forest sector with an ongoing, multi-stakeholder dialogue platform and process focused on developing mutual trust, a shared understanding, and collaborative solutions to challenges in achieving sustainable forest management and forest conservation around the world. In recent years, TFD has expanded its remit to include all actors across the landscape, not just the forest sector. TFD is an autonomous, unincorporated organization hosted by Yale University and with a secretariat based at The Forest School at YSE.

The goal of TFD is to reduce conflict among stakeholders over the use and protection of vital forest resources. Since its founding, TFD has brought together more than 3,000 diverse leaders to work through more than twenty compelling forest and landscape sustainability challenges. TFD uses a multi-stakeholder dialogue model to progress from building trust among participants to achieving substantive, tangible outcomes in such a way that participants are committed to advocate for and work to implement those broadly agreed upon outcomes. TFD is currently orienting much of its work to focus on questions related to forests and climate change. Current TFD initiatives include: Climate Positive Forest Products–Mass Timber (CPFP), The Land Use Dialogues (LUD), Tree Plantations in the Landscape (TPL), Bioenergy from Forests (BEF), Forests and Climate, and Ecosystem Restoration.

TFD is governed by a steering committee composed of leading individuals representing key forest stakeholders from around the world. TFD hires YSE students as program associates each term to work with the secretariat and steering committee members on all facets of TFD’s operations. Duties include background research for the initiatives, communications, secretariat support, dialogue planning, and running the dialogues on location. Students who are interested in forests, climate, and landscape-related issues as well as those who are interested in stakeholder engagement are encouraged to apply to work with TFD.