CIFOR’s Brazilian Regional Office celebrated CIFOR’s s 10th Anniversary with a forum titled “Forests, Institutional Management and Development: Options for the Amazon”.

Held at the Estação Gasômetro Theatre, in Belém, the event celebrated both CIFOR's 10th anniversary and 25 years of research in the Amazon Basin by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).

The forum covered three sessions, identifying threats and opportunities in forestry and poverty reduction, forest access and utilization models, and institutional challenges for the management of forestry resources. Invited speakers included Carlos Vicente from Brazil’s Ministry of Environment, Alfredo Homma of Embrapa Eastern Amazon, Sven Wunder, Peter Cronkleton, Pablo Pacheco and Patricia Shanley from CIFOR, and Thomas Hurtienne from the Federal University.

Adalberto Verrísimo of IMAZON, and Hans Krueger  from GTZ, among many other speakers. The presentations were followed by a two hour debate and finished with a closing with a summary from CIFOR Director General, David Kaimowitz.

The event was attended by more than 100 participants, including representatives from the Federal and State Attorney's Office, the Timber Exporters Association, local research institutions, universities, NGOs, WWF, IICA/Procitropicos and CIRAD.

As the chief coordinator for the event, CIFOR’s 10th Anniversary in Belem marked a significant milestone in Senior Associate Benno Pokorny’s career with CIFOR, prior to his taking up a position with Germany’s Freiburg University.