Center for International Forestry Research
 |
 | |
| Established | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit organisation |
| Headquarters | Bogor, Indonesia |
Region served | Worldwide |
Director-General | Frances Seymour (2006-present) |
Previous Director Generals | David Kaimowitz (2001-2006), Jeff Sayer (1993-2001) |
| Website | http://www.cifor.org/ |
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a nonprofit, global facility dedicated to advancing human wellbeing, environmental conservation and equity. CIFOR conducts research that enables more informed and equitable decision making about the use and management of forests in less-developed countries.
Overview
CIFOR's research and expert analysis help policy makers and practitioners shape effective policy, improve the management of tropical forests and address the needs and perspectives of people who depend on forests for their livelihoods. CIFOR's multidisciplinary approach considers the underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation, which often lie outside the forestry sector: forces such as agriculture, infrastructure development, trade and investment policies and law enforcement.
CIFOR's research spans governance, poverty and environmental issues.
- How can forests be managed in ways that enable us to mitigate and adapt to climate change?
- How can the people who depend on smallholder and community forestry improve their livelihoods?
- How can the trade-offs between conservation and development be managed?
- How can the impacts of globalised trade and investment be managed?
- How can tropical production forests be managed sustainably?
CIFOR has its headquarters in Bogor, Indonesia. It has three regional offices: in Burkina Faso (West Africa), Cameroon (Central Africa) and Kenya (East and South Africa). It has project offices in Ethiopia and Zambia (Africa), Vietnam and Laos (Asia), and Brazil and Peru (Latin America).
CIFOR is one of 15 centres within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
History
Although many link CIFOR’s creation to the 1992 Earth Summit because it came into existence the following year, the discussions that led to founding of CIFOR predated the Earth Summit by several years. In 1991, the CGIAR appointed the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) as the implementing agency responsible for establishing CIFOR and setting up a Board of Trustees. CIFOR’s Establishment Agreement was lodged with the United Nations and its legal identity as an international organisation was consolidated with a Host Country Agreement between the new Board and the Government of Indonesia in May 1993.
Early in CIFOR’s evolution, a decision was taken to focus its research agenda on forest policy research rather than on technical forestry or tree breeding, which were thought to be better suited to national and private-sector research institutes. Instead of having laboratories, CIFOR would be a “Centre without walls”, marshalling interdisciplinary research teams in collaboration with partners to tackle forest policy changes in an increasingly complex and globalised world.
Partnerships
CIFOR occupies a niche in the broad universe of organisations involved in forest research. To have significant impact, we must establish and maintain strategic relationships with a range of partners at the national, regional and international levels. Three relationships are of particular importance:
Being part of the CGIAR System confers many benefits: close proximity to its global networks; partnerships with other centres; access to a range of services, and many more. Furthermore, a significant portion of CIFOR’s funding comes from CGIAR sources.
- World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
There are significant opportunities for collaboration between CIFOR and the World Agroforestry Centre, given the latter’s strong focus on trees in agricultural landscapes.
CIFOR’s relationship with Indonesia is defined by the fact that it is an international research organisation with a mandate to generate global public goods, while endeavouring to support the host country’s national forest policy research agenda. CIFOR works closely with the Ministry of Forestry to identify potential areas of collaboration in research and outreach.
Strategy
CIFOR’s first strategy, set out in 1996 provided the foundations and direction for innovative research that had a significant impact on the understanding and practice of forest management throughout the tropics. But the world’s forests and the way they are perceived have changed dramatically since CIFOR was established.
Foremost among many changes is that forests are today centre stage in the global debate on how to tackle climate change. CIFOR recognises that almost 20 per cent of global carbon emissions are caused by deforestation, and that curbing forest loss is a critical and cost effective way to mitigate global warming.
At the same time, new forces are driving both deforestation and forest degradation. For example, the promotion of biofuels by governments concerned about global warming is driving forest clearance in some areas.
To respond to these and other challenges, CIFOR devised a new strategy for a new era.[1] The strategy was developed through extensive consultation with staff and partners, including donors, policy makers, researchers, opinion leaders and nongovernmental organisations. Approved by the Board of Trustees in May 2008, this strategy will guide CIFOR’s work for the next 10 years to 2018.
Research
CIFOR’s research focuses on six domains that reflect the cross-sectoral nature of forest management:
Domain 1: Enhancing the role of forests in mitigating climate change
Land use change due to deforestation is a significant source of carbon emissions and a contributor to global warming, releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the entire fuel-hungry transport sector. The emissions from deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia alone equal the combined carbon-reduction commitments of all Annex 1 countries during the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Finding ways to maintain terrestrial carbon pools and reduce carbon emissions from land use changes will be a key element of future United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.
CIFOR’s goal is to ensure that the international post-2012 climate regime and national-level REDD schemes are efficient, equitable and provide benefits to affected communities in developing countries. Within 4 years, CIFOR’s research will have informed negotiations towards a global REDD regime and influenced national-level REDD policies and strategies in at least five countries.
Research themes
- Developing procedures and best practices for estimating and managing carbon stocks in tropical forest landscapes
- Identifying policies, governance conditions and payment mechanisms that lead to effective implementation of REDD schemes
- Understanding the political economy and barriers to adoption of policies for efficient, effective and equitable REDD regimes
Domain 2: Enhancing the role of forests in adapting to climate change
Climate change is already having dramatic effects on forests, natural resources and people’s livelihoods. During the past century, the Earth has warmed by approximately 0.7°C. Unless we take measures to address climate change, temperatures could rise even more rapidly, by between 1.4°C and 5.8°C, during the next 100 years. Poor people in developing countries are particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, not least because they often live and work in the very areas – flood plains, mountainsides, deltas – in which natural disasters most often occur.
Major challenges include reducing the vulnerability of those sectors which are most sensitive to climate variability – including forest, energy and water resources – and ‘climate proofing’ future development activities. Most countries have already defined adaptation plans or projects, but few are considering forests in adaptation. Forests need to be included in climate change adaptation policies for two reasons: first, because of their vulnerability; and second, because of their role in reducing the vulnerability of society to losses from climate change.
CIFOR’s twin goals are to ensure that forestry policy and practice adequately address the need to protect forest-dependent livelihoods from adverse climate change and to ensure that adaptation strategies adequately incorporate improved forest management. Within 5 years, CIFOR’s research will have informed the adoption by UNFCCC of a set of tested methods for forest-related vulnerability assessments, and criteria for adaptive management of forests, and have influenced forest-related adaptation policies in at least five countries.
Research themes
- Bringing climate change adaptation into forest management
- Mainstreaming forestry into climate change adaptation
Domain 3: Improving livelihoods through smallholder and community forestry
Forest-based activities provide around 30 million informal jobs in developing countries, as well as 13 to 35 per cent of all rural nonfarm employment. Yet many of the 240 million or more people who live in forested areas live in poverty. There is surprisingly little empirical knowledge to answer basic, yet highly relevant questions about the forestry–poverty nexus.
At least one-quarter of the forested land in developing countries is under some form of community control, and that proportion is likely to increase. Domestic markets for forest products are also expanding, and should create new economic opportunities for low-income households. Better information is needed about policies and practices that could help smallholder and community forestry enterprises flourish.
CIFOR’s goal is to improve understanding of the links between forests and human wellbeing. Within 5 years, CIFOR will have influenced the way smallholder and community forestry concerns are incorporated into poverty alleviation strategies in at least five countries.
Research themes
- Identifying management practices that are appropriate for smallholder and community forestry, including provision of safety nets for forest biodiversity
- Defining effective local institutional arrangements for enhancing outcomes from smallholder and community forestry
- Developing policies and institutions to enhance coordination, productivity, sustainability and profitability of small-scale enterprises
Domain 4: Managing trade-offs between conservation and development at the landscape scale
Conservation efforts mainly concentrate on optimising the management of protected areas, yet most of the world’s biodiversity occurs in fragmented landscape mosaics outside protected areas. These are often subject to a range of land uses. Integrating sustainable use and conservation in tropical landscapes requires a recognition that there are inherent trade-offs between the two. Interest is increasing in directly targeting the delivery of forest services through payments for environmental services (PES). Through PES, compensation is used as a tool to reconcile hard trade-offs between the interests of landowners and service users. To understand fully the potential of PES schemes, it is necessary to compare their effectiveness with alternative conservation approaches. There is an urgent need for sound science to identify better ways of managing the trade-offs between conservation and development.
CIFOR’s goal is to shift policy and practice towards conservation and development approaches that are more effective, efficient and equitable. Within 7 years, the policies and practices of at least two significant international conservation organisations and donor agencies, and at least five national governments, will begin to reflect the results of CIFOR’s research.
Research themes
- Developing better methods for assessing environmental services
- Establishing platforms for negotiating conservation and development trade-offs
- Understanding the relative effectiveness of institutional frameworks and alternative conservation approaches
Domain 5: Managing impacts of globalised trade and investment on forests and forest communities
Increased trade in forest products and investment in forest-based industries have the potential to stimulate economic growth. Developing countries export more than US$ 23 billion worth of wood products a year, yet in many places just a small fraction of the profits benefit small-scale producers and forest dwellers. Unfair trade practices, distorted markets, corruption and weak governance all undermine the contribution forests could make to improving local livelihoods.
During the coming years, a number of global trends – including China’s demand for wood products, the geographic shift in industrial timber production away from Asia, greater investment in industrial tree planting and the increasing demand for biofuels – will have a significant impact on forests and the people who depend on them. To better manage the impact of globalised trade and investment on forests, governments and other stakeholders need research to construct scenarios that illuminate the implications of current and projected trends for forests and forest-based livelihoods.
CIFOR’s goal is to catalyse significant shifts in global investment standards in areas such as risk assessment, monitoring and information disclosure. Within 5 years, CIFOR research will have influenced at least three countries’ decision-making processes for more effectively managing the impact of trade and investment on forests and forest-dependent communities.
Research themes
- Understanding trade and investment trends
- Assessing tools for managing the national and local impacts of trade and investment trends
Domain 6: Sustainably managing tropical production forests
As production forests will constitute up to 80 per cent of the permanent forest estate in many tropical regions, a large number of forest-dependent people living in or near them are likely to be affected by the way they are managed. Over the past two decades, the global community has been searching for long-term approaches to promote sustainable forest management. These efforts have resulted in increasing amounts of natural forests being set aside for timber production under sustainable management. However, sustainability remains an elusive goal in many countries where the basic tenets of forest management have not really changed over the past few decades.
Most existing models for sustainable forest management are viable only for large concessions. They are designed for big companies exploiting unlogged primary forest, not for medium- or small-scale enterprises working in secondary or logged-over forests. There is a need for research to review existing management paradigms for tropical production forests and facilitate the design of new, equitable and more environmentally friendly management rules.
CIFOR’s goal is to precipitate a paradigm shift in how production forests are managed, and by whom. Within 10 years, CIFOR research will have contributed to a significant increase in the area of production forests managed for goods and services beyond timber in at least five countries. At a global level, the investment decisions, standards and guidelines of key donor and forestry agencies will increasingly reflect this paradigm shift.
Research themes
- Defining better forest and forest policy regimes
- Developing tools and information for better-managed production forests beyond Reduced Impact Logging
- Understanding local people’s values, rights and benefit sharing
Publications
Scientific results are made available to the international scientific community and policymakers through publications in international journals, policy briefs and training materials. In addition, CIFOR also disseminates its results in non-English journals, policy briefs, CD-ROMs and manuals.
Major Events
Forest Day
Forest Day is one of the world's leading global platforms for anyone with an interest in forests and climate change to come together with others and exchange their views. Forest Day is organised by the Center for International Forestry Research on behalf of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. It is held on alongside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties. More than 1,100 people from 82 countries, including 214 official climate-change negotiators and 65 media representatives, attended Forest Day 5 on 4 December 2011 in Durban, South Africa. Previous Forest Days have been held in Bali, Poland, Copenhagen and Mexico. The next one will be in Doha, Qatar in December 2012.
See also
- Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
- CGIAR
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
References
- As of 2 May 2011, this article uses content from CIFOR: Center for International Forestry Research publications. This content has been licensed under the CC-By-SA and GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.
- ^ "CIFOR strategy 2010-2018" (PDF). CIFOR.
CIFOR Websites
