Tropical Resources Institute

The mission of the Tropical Resources Institute (TRI) is to support interdisciplinary student research on the most complex challenges confronting the conservation and management of tropical environments worldwide. TRI was created in 1983 to strengthen the School’s involvement in the study and management of tropical resources. The institute recognizes that the problems surrounding the conservation and management of tropical resources are rapidly increasing in complexity, while demands on those resources continue to grow. Emerging structures of global environmental governance and local conflicts over land use require new strategies and leaders able to function across diverse disciplines and sectors, and at multiple scales. TRI seeks to train students to be leaders in this new era, equipping them with the resources and tools this new generation will require to equitably address the challenges ahead.

TRI serves as the nexus within YSE through which students conduct interdisciplinary research and outreach activities throughout the tropics. Within the broader Yale community, TRI serves as a clearinghouse for research and educational activities pertaining to tropical countries, societies, and environments.

TRI is run by a director, student program assistants, and a faculty steering committee. Its directorship and its student grant program are supported by its own endowments.

Research TRI administers the TRI Fellowship, an endowed fellowship program that supports several dozen master’s and doctoral students conducting natural and social science research in the tropics each year. Following the mission of TRI, these research projects are typically interdisciplinary and problem-oriented and cover a wide range of issues concerning the management and conservation of tropical resources. TRI also administers a small grants program focused on Sri Lanka. More information on both programs can be found at https://tri.yale.edu.

Education Throughout the academic year, TRI sponsors workshops, discussions, and speakers that focus on timely conservation and development issues in the global tropics. TRI provides mentoring and training to graduate students in research design, proposal writing, and field methods; after research, it helps them develop articles for Tropical Resources, TRI’s annual journal of student research.

Outreach TRI supports partnerships with international organizations in many tropical regions in order to create innovative research opportunities for YSE students. TRI works to build networks among scholars and international institutions to facilitate research and the dissemination of knowledge on tropical resource issues. TRI distributes its annual Bulletin to an international list of practitioners and academics, and it hosts a website, https://tri.yale.edu.

Publications TRI publishes Tropical Resources: The Bulletin of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute, an annual journal of student research funded by grants from TRI. This publication is disseminated both internationally and domestically to a list that includes practitioners, academics, and institutions that focus on tropical issues; it can also be read online at https://tri.yale.edu/tropical-resources. Tropical Resources typically contains articles by a dozen or more students based on a wide range of field research experiences.