Understanding local people's needs vital for forest development
Understanding what really matters to local people is essential for effective land resource management in forests. Without this knowledge, concerned groups like governments, development organizations and private companies may have difficulty tailoring development and regional management priorities to suit local people's priorities and needs in their efforts to develop a region. more

CIFOR support for forest rehabilitation in Peru
Peru has over 10 million hectares of the world's estimated 850 million hectares of degraded forest, and in Peru the amount is increasing every year. In April 2004, CIFOR organized a meeting with its local host Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Extensión Agraria (INIA) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) to report on its research on the degraded forest lands of the Ucayali Region in the central Peruvian Amazon lowlands. But as CIFOR's Cesar Sabogal remarked, the meeting achieved much more than just merely reporting a set of research finding. more

Training Peru's loggers
Until recently, Peru's forests were very badly managed. Under a 1975 forestry law, short-term harvesting contracts were awarded to large numbers of itinerant loggers who moved from area to area, cutting down trees without the slightest consideration for the sustainable management of the forests. This system ended with the introduction of a new forestry law in mid-2000. Now the government awards long-term concessions, mostly to associations of small-scale forest extractors, and requires applicants to submit management plans as part of the process. more

Women crucial to future of forests
Although Brazil has a number of active environmental NGOs with powerful lobbies in Brasilia and networks across urban and rural Amazonia, there is still a striking lack of information regarding the value of forest biodiversity for local livelihoods. more

CIFOR and Ministry launch tree adoption
Celebrating Earth Day at the Darmaga Research Forest, CIFOR, Bogor. more

A model for reducing poverty and sustaining forests
In most developing countries, researchers, NGO activists, planners, policy makers and businesses have been struggling to understand how to reduce rural poverty and at the same time reduce environmental degradation. There is clearly a relationship between rural poverty and loss of forest cover and biodiversity in developing countries, yet there is much we do not yet understand about the cause-effect links between them. more

The great flood myth
When massive flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic killed 3000 people and left tens of thousands homeless late last month, everyone seemed sure who was to blame. more

Beef exports fuel loss of Amazonian Forest
A CIFOR report issued in April this year says much of the recent increase in the loss of Brazil's Amazonian forests is due to the high international demand for Brazilian beef. The report "Hamburger connection Fuels Amazon Destruction," was released to coincide with the Government of Brazil's annual announcement of the rate of deforestation in the Amazonian jungle. more

Capacity Building-SFM and Decentralization in Indonesia
A recent capacity building exercise in East Kalimantan has enhanced key stakeholder awareness of how to better approach sustainable forest management (SFM). With control of Indonesia's forest resources being increasingly handed over to local authorities and institutions, training local stakeholders in SFM is particularly timely. Supported by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), and conducted in April at the CIFOR research station at Seturan, Malinau, East Kalimantan, the workshop focused on participatory approaches in district forest management. more

Interlaken decentralization workshop outcomes
The Interlaken Workshop on Decentralization, Federal Systems in Forestry and National Forest Programmes held in Switzerland last April provided 160 participants from 51 countries an all too rare opportunity to examine the implications for national forest programmes arising from the increasing international trend towards decentralized forest management. more

Partners building capacity: CIFOR, CI and LIPI
A nine-day training seminar near Jayapura in Indonesia's West Papua has enhanced the capacity of local communities to participate in decision-making processes concerning local forests, and to assist in the creation of a Mamberamo Conservation Corridor. more

CIFOR and IFS launch poverty environment network
Since the early 1990s an increasing number of governments at the local, regional or provincial levels have been taking on the role of managing national forests - an area that was once felt better left in the hands of central governments. In at least 60 developing countries, forest management responsibilities now rest in one degree or another with mayors, town councils and local authorities. more

African ministers attend CIFOR book launch
The importance of CIFOR's work in Africa was recently underlined at a major book launch attended by Government ministers from Cameroon, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sao Tome. more

New CIFOR Publications. more

Research that communicates
It's all very well to produce hundreds of research reports, papers and technical guides on local livelihoods and sustainable forest management. But what use are they if those who can use the literature to implement sustainable forest management practices don't speak the language the documents are written in? English may well be the language of international diplomacy, business and trade. But that is not always the case when it comes to end-users working in the areas of agriculture and forestry. more

Books. more

CIFOR and CIRAD renew MOU
CIFOR's long standing and fruitfull relationship with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) received a boost with the May renewal of their MOU. Under the MOU, CIFOR and CIRAD continue to work together in researching the role of tropical and sub-tropical forests in improving the well-being people and societies, and for local and global purposes. more

CIFOR Staff. more

BOT - members. more