Integrating Diverse Approaches, Actors, and Local Knowledge: Lessons From the 61st ATBC Meeting

Annual meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) provide a window into emerging research priorities, conceptual shifts, and methodological advances in tropical biology and conservation. Here, we synthesize lessons and outcomes from the 61st ATBC Annual Meeting (ATBC 2025) held in Oaxaca, México, and situate them within the broader trajectory of ATBC conferences to identify continuities, emerging directions, and gaps. ATBC 2025 convened 1161 participants from 63 countries, providing a timely platform to examine how research in tropical biology and conservation is responding to accelerating socioecological change. Analyses of symposia, oral and poster presentations, and plenary sessions revealed three overarching messages. First, compound disturbances—such as interactions between land‐use change and climate extremes—are increasingly reshaping tropical ecosystems and require integrative research and management approaches. Second, effective conservation and restoration depend on equity‐centered frameworks that meaningfully engage Indigenous Peoples and local communities through collaborative governance and coproduced knowledge. Third, rapid methodological innovation—from microbiome studies to artificial intelligence and remote sensing—continues to expand analytical capacity, although its transformative potential depends upon socially grounded and place‐based contexts. The meeting also highlighted science–action linkages, exemplified by the “Declaration on the Social–Ecological Impacts of Agave Monocultures for Mezcal Production” and ATBC's carbon offset initiative developed with CORENCHI, a community‐led civil association conserving tropical cloud forests in Oaxaca. Although challenges remain, ATBC 2025 illustrated the evolving role of ATBC conferences as platforms for integrative, action‐oriented science to advance conservation and sustainability in the tropics.