Tropical forests cover about 10% of Earth's land surface, yet bear the legacies of human activities over time, including agriculture, migration, trade and human disease. Despite evidence of anthropogenic influences on vegetation, ecologists have not yet systematically included anthropogenic forest history in their plot-based protocols or analyses, rendering some conclusions uncertain. Ecologists use standard plot protocols to enable cross-site comparisons. We aim to improve these cornerstone plot methodologies and related data interpretation by accounting for anthropogenic forest history and recovery over time. This talk will present the ForHist (Forest History in English/Forêt-Histoire in French) project, a newly funded SNSF project which addresses century-old legacies resulting from the colonial resettlement policy, while proposing a standardized ecological method. Our innovative collaboration between ecologists and the social and historical sciences applies the Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities Landscape Transformation framework to explore legacies of historic natural resource management systems on forest structure and diversity. We focus on the last 300 years, in line with the colonial context of the study area. ForHist, will achieve two major objectives: create a ForestGEO plot protocol integrating socio-historical methods and contribute to understanding how management practices and colonial resettlement policy shapes present-day Gabonese forest structure and diversity. ForHist focuses on ecology, using a historical ecology approach to interpret forest research in light of the social and historical sciences, collaboratively collecting data and conducting analyses with local communities. We focus on two key types of anthropogenic forest disturbance: swidden agriculture and establishment and abandonment of former village sites. The study site is in Gabon's Ivindo National Park. A 25-ha permanent plot will be installed to explore an in-depth case of forest recovery at a former village site using the standardized Smithsonian ForestGEO protocol and complemented by transects using the Missouri Botanical Garden protocol, enabling historical ecological research in Central Africa for decades. We work with the ForestGEO network which prioritises data analysis and systematically invests in the careers of scientists from the regions where they work. ForHist will shape a new generation of students and will contribute to understanding how former management practices and resettlement colonial policy shape Gabonese forest structure and diversity.