IAAC Lecture Series 2025/26 – Meg Lowman

In this lecture, Dr. Meg Lowman will present Mission Green – her bold initiative to build canopy walkways in the world’s ten most biodiverse and endangered forests, turning biodiversity hot spots into sites of research, education, and sustainable economic opportunity for indigenous communities.

Known worldwide as “Canopy Meg”, Lowman has spent over four decades exploring forest canopies across 46 countries and all seven continents, pioneering the science of canopy ecology and redefining how we understand the living systems above our heads. Mission Green, launched in 2020, is modelled after Mission Blue – oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s initiative to designate ocean Hope Spots – and applies the same logic to the world’s most critical terrestrial ecosystems. By building canopy walkways, the project creates pathways for scientists, local communities and visitors to engage with forest biodiversity in ways that make conservation economically viable.

The lecture will explore how architecture, infrastructure and ecology can work together to protect what Lowman calls the eighth continent – the forest canopy – and why the next decade is decisive for the forests that regulate our planet’s climate and harbour most of its species.

Dr. Meg Lowman, Ph.D., is a biologist, ecologist, arbornaut, author and conservationist. A pioneer in the field of forest canopy science, she has conducted groundbreaking research across 46 countries, co-chaired five international canopy conferences, and authored over 150 scientific publications and eleven books. She is the Executive Director of the TREE Foundation and founder of Mission Green. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, the Wall Street Journal and Wired, and in 2023 she received the Explorers Club Medal, joining past recipients such as Jane Goodall and Sir Edmund Hillary.

If you would like to attend the lecture, please register using the form below.