This symposium brings together diverse disciplines and practitioners to explore enduring human legacies on present and future tropical landscapes, showcasing cutting-edge advancements in past proxies that reconstruct environments, cultures, and the processes that shaped the tropics. 



As population and climate pressures mount, the capacity of human society to preserve, manage, and reclaim tropical forests is crucial for global futures. Understanding long-term coupled human/environment trajectories and how forests recover following anthropogenic disturbance is critical for informed management strategies. Datasets on the type, intensity, and duration of disturbance inform how humans shaped ecosystems through time, the resilience and vulnerability of past land use, and the chronology and degree to which tropical forests recover. 



Furthermore, the legacy of human-environment interactions are rooted in Indigenous beliefs and practice. These traditions are encoded in the palaeoecological signal, ancient artefacts, and artworks, and persist through oral histories and contemporary indigenous culture and practice. Recognising and integrating Indigenous approaches offers valuable lessons for contemporary environmental management and global sustainability efforts. 



Presenters include specialists in palaeoecology, archaeology, paleofire, dendrochronology, plant genetics, ethnography and rock art, as well as indigenous voices who live and farm amongst the archaeological ruins of their ancestors. Together, this symposium offers an opportunity to demonstrate long-term human legacies and bridge socio-environmental histories with sustainable environmental futures.