Forests Over Profits 2026 

Join forest defenders and climate activists across the Pacific Northwest for Forest Over Profits 2026 on September 12-13 in Portland, OR. This movement gathering will build community,  power, and momentum against the exploitation of our forests and public lands. As Wall Street investors scheme to use AI to wring every dollar out of PNW forests and the Trump Admin ruthlessly attacks public land protections, it's clear that only grassroots movements can defend the  wellbeing of communities and the land from corporate profit. At Forests Over Profits, we'll hear from ongoing land-defense campaigns against extractive logging, data center development, and mining from across the PNW. We'll share and learn skills and practices for fighting back, connect with ongoing struggles for land & justice, and deepen ties between movements.

Who will own the forest?

On September 15-17 2026, Wall Street investors will join timber corporations, carbon offset & biomass companies in Portland for the annual “Who Will Own the Forest?” conference, which has previously been rebranded as “Canopy: Forests + Markets + Society” after a significant public outcry. This “signature forestland investment conference” brings together some of the biggest climate polluters, corporate forest clear-cutters, and false climate solutions peddlers and we’re going to be there to make sure that they know that renaming the conference is not enough! 

As the devastating impacts of the climate crisis accelerate with each passing year, we need to call out false climate solutions that only serve to further enrich big polluters at the expense of our communities, our climate, and our forests.

While communities around the world suffer record-breaking impacts of the climate crisis, these rich elites will convene to network over cocktails & catering, discussing their plans to maximize profits: corporate land-grabbing, extractive clear-cutting, financializing nature, and pushing false climate solutions like carbon offsets & biomass to keep big polluters in business. In the face of the climate emergency, these corporations and investors are sacrificing communities and the ecosystems we depend on to keep their profits rolling in.

Capitalist investors grow profits, not forests. But communities know our forests can be real solutions to the climate emergency, if we protect & restore them instead of exploiting them for shareholder returns. We’re rising up and fighting back; we won’t let our forests, communities, and climate be sacrificed for the rich to get richer.

Forest Over Profits is organized in direct opposition against the extractive industries that advance forest destruction and favor investments over community in the face of climate disaster. Join us at Forest Over Profits 2026 to continue building the movement for climate justice, forest defense, and an ecologically healthy future for all. 

Forests Over Profits 2023

forests Over profits mobilization 2023 recap

So much happened that we wanted to share a quick recap of all the actions & events that took place in protest of the Who Will Own the Forest conference:

In the days leading up to the Who Will Own the Forest conference, activists used huge light projections along Interstate 5 to shine a light (literally!) on the outrage of Wall Street investors destroying forests, communities, and the climate. 

Tuesday 9/26
Activists blocked the entrances to the opening reception of WWOTF for over an hour and hung a banner on the front of the WFC Discovery Museum that read “Land Back: You Will Never Own the Forest” 

Weds 9/27
In the morning, activists blocked the entrance gate to the WWOTF conference hall with banners and chanting, and then forced conference attendees to walk a gauntlet of chanting and banners calling out their financialization of nature and clearcutting of forests. 

In the afternoon: hundreds rallied for five hours at the Who Will Own the Forest conference, forcing the conference to move their lunch indoors to hide from the rally. There were powerful speakers & songs, banners & art, theatrical performances, and a firetruck, and people blocked the road leading to the World Forestry Center. Separately, activists hung a banner reading “Timber Money is Blood Money” over Highway 26 during afternoon rush hour.  

In the evening, activists paraded with banners and chanting around the Who Will Own the Forest conference during the evening garden reception. Allegedly, the reception was disrupted by loud chanting and some conference attendees, along with all the appetizers, were doused in sawdust as a reminder that they can’t hide from the destructive impacts of corporate clear-cutting or community resistance. 

Thursday 9/28
More than 100 people participated in the Forests Over Profits conference to learn about real transformative solutions to the climate emergency, industrial logging, and colonial land grabbing. From a Green New Deal for PNW Forests, ecological & community forestry, to Land Back and confronting the colonial roots of resource extraction and land appropriation, we learned about the fundamental systems change required and approaches to forest management that support ecosystems, empower communities, and grow climate resilience. 

join the movement!

It's time to put forests, climate, and communities over profits! Reach out via email to contact@forestsoverprofits.org to get involved!