This panel will bring together key partners of the NbS Guinean Forests Project in West Africa, a Global Affairs Canada funded project jointly managed by World University Service of Canada and CECI - Centre d'étude et de coopération internationale, in collaboration with iBOL. The project seeks to support climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinean Forests through social and economic interventions that support and sustain restored landscapes. Women, who are disproportionately impacted by climate change and biodiversity loss are at the core of all project activities. Through partnership with iBOL, the project is employing DNA barcoding to better document biodiversity in key project landscapes, with a view to mobilizing biodiversity data in conversation with local indigenous knowledge. The panel will bring together key project members from Canada and Africa to discuss the social impacts of biodiversity conservation, and the role that DNA barcoding can play in informing local adaptation planning and social and economic interventions. We will share some of the initial results of collaboration with iBOL, and our plans for better mobilizing DNA barcoding for biodiversity conservation and improved livelihoods in Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea.