In brief
- The forum was announced for September 9–13, 2026 in Girona, with Indigenous leadership; reviewed documentation does not verify actual attendance counts.
- For the first time, it is the native peoples who set the agenda: what gets researched, how it is regulated, and who benefits from a plant they have safeguarded for generations.
- There will be no ceremonies or consumption: the gathering is a space for scientific, cultural, and legal dialogue, without ceremonies or therapeutic services, according to the announcement.
From September 9 to 13, the Palau de Congressos and the Fira de Girona will host an unprecedented gathering: the first World Ayahuasca Forum, announced as a gathering of Indigenous leaders, scientists, health professionals, legal experts and activists to decide together—not on their behalf—the future of this plant.
Who Sets the Agenda This Time
Ayahuasca has already had several international gatherings—Ibiza in 2014, Rio Branco in 2016, Girona itself in 2019—but they were almost always organized from outside the communities that originated it. This one is different at its root: it grows out of the Fifth Indigenous Ayahuasca Congress held in Brazil in 2025, and the official page identifies an organizing partnership between the Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute and ICEERS, with Indigenous spiritual leadership. Confirmed speakers include Benki Piyãko, Ninawa Pai da Mata, Biraci Brasil Yawanawa, and Daiara Tukano, alongside Western researchers such as Dennis McKenna, Paul Stamets, Monica Gagliano, and physician Pamela Kryskow.
Regulating Without Repeating Past Mistakes
The program is organized into five simultaneous spaces—plenaries, global dialogues, thematic panels, research presentations, and a maloca devoted to the arts—and pursues something very concrete: building intercultural regulatory frameworks, legal support networks, and research protocols that recognize Indigenous epistemological sovereignty, rather than simply studying the plant from the outside. The backdrop is the growing pressure on ayahuasca and its active component, DMT: the scarcity of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis plants in some areas of the Amazon, expanding psychedelic tourism, and the commercialization of knowledge that has so far rarely benefited its keepers. The organizers insist there will be no ceremonies, sales, or consumption: it is, deliberately, a space for learning and negotiation, without ceremonies, according to the release.
What It Means
The forum frames a debate on governance and biocultural rights; its announcement authorizes no ceremonies and does not itself establish the legal status of each practice. The organizers propose stronger networks and Indigenous participation in research, regulation and benefit sharing, without reviewed pages establishing a body with binding powers in 2027. This relates to what the Gabon debate raises about iboga heritage and governance. Binding forum outcomes were not verified here. From a harm reduction and respect for autonomy standpoint, the forum does not by itself resolve the tensions between growing demand and the sustainability of the resource, but it does change who sits at the table where those rules are decided.
Source
- ICEERS / Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute. Press release: World Ayahuasca Forum 2026. Ayahuasca2026.com, release dated June 18, 2025.
Educational content written from a harm reduction perspective and with respect for individual freedom. It is not a substitute for advice from a healthcare professional and is not intended to encourage or condemn any drug use.
