Mission Green: Dr. Meg Lowman at the IAAC Lecture Series 2025/26

Known worldwide as “Canopy Meg”, Lowman brought to IAAC a vision as ambitious as it is urgent — and a career that has taken her to forest canopies across 46 countries and all seven continents.

In her lecture, Dr. Lowman presented Mission Green — her initiative to build canopy walkways in the world’s ten most biodiverse and endangered forests, turning biodiversity hotspots into sites of research, education and sustainable economic opportunity for indigenous communities.

Modelled after Mission Blue — oceanographer Sylvia Earle‘s initiative to designate ocean Hope Spots — Mission Green 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.

Central to the lecture was Lowman’s concept of 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. The session explored how architecture, infrastructure and ecology can work together to protect what remains, and why the canopy is not a remote scientific subject but a system on which all life depends.

Dr. Meg Lowman 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.

The IAAC Lecture Series brings together leading architects, researchers and practitioners to discuss critical questions shaping the future of architecture and the built environment.