The CANOPI project is funded under the "EOS - Excellence of Science" 2021 call of FWO and FNRS (EOS reference number: O.0026.22). This is a consortium project between ULiège (main PI Adeline Fayolle, co-PI Jean-François Bastin), UGent (co-PI’s Wannes Hubau and Kathy Steppe), CENAREST-Gabon (co-PI’s Katharine Abernethy and Alfred Ngomanda) and INERA-DRCongo (co-PI Bhély Angoboy). The general ambition of the CANOPI project is to contribute to understanding resilience of central African forests to climate change. While deforestation and forest degradation remain the top human threats on tropical forests, climate is expected to progressively shift to drier conditions in the tropical belt, adding an extra pressure on the system with large-scale die-back of tropical trees. The situation might be even more alarming in Africa, where climate is already drier and more seasonal than in the other tropical regions. Whether tropical forests in central Africa will be sensitive to drier conditions –because trees are already limited by water availability– or resistant –because species are adapted to seasonal drought– is the ambitious challenge CANOPI aims to tackle. We propose a pioneering, transdisciplinary approach that will address four pressing fundamental scientific questions in specific work packages (WP) with a fifth WP dedicated to upscaling.