Imam Basuki was appointed as a Research Assistant in the Environmental Services and Sustainable Use of Forests programme in April. Imam has worked for CIFOR in a variety of positions since 2000 and holds a Bachelor degree from Bogor Agriculture University.

Chetan Kumar joined CIFOR's Forests and Livelihoods programme in May. Based in New Delhi, Chetan will work with CIFOR staff and coordinate "Forests that benefit the poor", a three year CIFOR-IFAD project in Nepal, India and China. Chetan has a Masters degree in Forestry Management and a M. Phil. in Environment and Development.

Melling Situmorang joined CIFOR's Information Services Group in May as a Computer Systems Assistant. Melling has a degree in Computer Science from Bogor Agriculture University and has assisted CIFOR with several different projects since 2002.

Riskan Effendi joined CIFOR in July 2004 as the Field and Forests Manager of CIFOR's Malinau Research Forest in East Kalimantan. Prior to joining CIFOR, Riskan was the Head of the Silviculture Researchers Group at the Forest Research Institute of Kalimantan. He has a Masters degree in Environmental Forestry from the University of Wales.

Moving on:

Several colleagues have left CIFOR during the past six months. We thank them sincerely for their contribution to CIFOR and wish them every success.

• Ronny Syamm finished his assignment in April 2004 following 14 months as a GIS Specialist in the Decentralization project within CIFOR's Forests and Governance programme.

• Agus Salim recently moved to Australia to take up a post-doctoral position at the Australian National University, following five years with CIFOR as a Statistician.

• Harinurdi Hadiwijoyo recently stepped down from his position as CIFOR's Property Manager, after some five years service with the Center. He is now with Kellogg Brown and Root, Jakarta.

• Theo Zacharias resigned in June 2004, following 18 months as a Research Assistant and Programmer with CIFOR's Forests and Governance programme.