The symposium will take center stage at the IUFRO Forest Environment Division 8 Conference 2026, bringing together experts who are reshaping how we understand and monitor carbon dynamics at large scales.

As the global demand for accurate carbon estimates grows, driven by national carbon inventories, carbon credit markets, and forest certification schemes, this symposium promises innovative perspectives. By integrating remote sensing, machine learning, big data analytics, and forest modeling, the conveners aim to reduce uncertainty and deliver tools that bridge the gap between science and policy.

Together, these conveners bring a unique blend of technological innovation, ecological insight, and international leadership to this symposium, making it a must-attend session at IUFRO 2026 in Patagonia.

About the Conveners

Ana Francisca Castro is a postgraduate student at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal. With a background spanning Applied Biology, Ecology, and Geosciences, her research focuses on spatial and temporal changes in organic carbon stocks across multiple ecosystem compartments. By combining remote sensing environmental predictors with legacy ground-truth data, she develops machine learning models to generate continuous, large-scale carbon predictions.

Fernando Pérez-Rodríguez is CTO at Föra Forest Technologies, where he leads technological innovation for sustainable forest management. His work lies at the intersection of forest engineering, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and data science. He has authored over 25 JCR-indexed articles, presented more than 50 contributions at international conferences, and registered more than 20 intellectual property rights, all contributing to practical decision-support systems for forestry.

João Azevedo is Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), Researcher at the Mountain Research Centre (CIMO) and SusTEC in Portugal, and UNESCO Chair "Water and Peace" (UNED/URJC) in Spain. With MSc and PhD degrees in Forestry from Texas A&M University, he is Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Division 8 (Forest Environment) and Chair of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Party. His research in landscape ecology focuses on ecosystem services, forest resilience, and sustainability in changing forested landscapes.