Enviro News Asia, Rome — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has named young researchers from Bangladesh and Uganda as winners of two forestry awards at the World Food Forum 2026 in Rome, Italy, recognizing applied research designed to support ecosystem restoration and strengthen global food systems.
The Bangladesh-based Mangrove Research Team, represented by Neyamat Hossen, won the forest restoration category for developing a digital decision-support platform for coastal mangrove restoration. Gad Okodi of Uganda won the forest monitoring innovation category for developing a community-based reporting system that uses basic mobile phones and FAO’s Open Foris Ground technology.
Tiina Vähänen, deputy director of FAO’s Forestry Division, announced the winners during presentations by finalists in the Transformative Research Challenge. Each of the two main winners will receive US$10,000 in research funding, mentorship and access to global networks to help develop and implement their proposals in the field.
Two other finalist teams, representing Mexico and Kenya, also received research grants of US$10,000 each.
The forestry awards form part of five main categories in the competition, organized by the Youth Innovation Lab as part of the World Food Forum.
Through the challenge, FAO aims to encourage young researchers to develop digital and participatory solutions for forest governance. The funding and mentoring programme is expected to accelerate the practical application of technological innovations that support forest landscape restoration and strengthen global climate resilience. (*)
