In December 2008, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) convened in Beijing for its Annual General Meeting. In recognition of their outstanding work, CIFOR nominated a number of its scientists for prestigious awards.
Cynthia McDougall
Outstanding Partnership Award (Nominee)
Cynthia's project - "Improving Livelihoods and Equity in Community Forestry in Nepal" - was nominated for its formidable, highly-engaged partnership base between CIFOR, three Nepali research organizations and numerous governmental, civil and local institutions. Despite a backdrop of civil uncertainty, this unique partnership has succeeded in addressing fundamental challenges to poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods. It has had a potent impact in policy change, forest governance, poverty alleviation and enhancing sustainable livelihoods.
The project's success has not only been shared by the partners involved but also by many marginalized groups, including women, poor and low caste people. The project delivered lessons from 165 community forest user groups, and has seen the balance of benefits begin to shift towards the most marginalized people.
For example, poor women whose livelihoods depended on fuelwood sales have said that they no longer felt persecuted or the need to steal fuelwood. "We could raise our voices," one woman said. "These days we have different options." The project also strengthened the research system by breaking down the barriers between key national forestry stakeholders, opening the door to more inclusive and effective policy research.
Daniel Murdiyarso
Outstanding Climate Change Communications Award (Nominee)
When it comes to the topic of climate change, Dr Daniel Murdiyarso is one of Indonesia's most respected scientists. He effectively communicates his knowledge both within and beyond the scientific community, with far-reaching impacts. Daniel is a sought after speaker, leading author and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Daniel was one of the early scientists to grasp the idea that human induced climate change and its effects need to be dealt with, and has spent the last two decades devoted to researching and communicating this reality to the world. He played a crucial role in Indonesia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and recently proposed an idea for Indonesia to convene an "F8" - an alliance of eight developing countries with tropical forests - to discuss forest management and opportunities to reduce global warming. This advice was communicated to President Yudhoyono and Indonesia has since initiated the alliance, expanding it to 11 developing nations.
Daniel is frequently quoted in local and international media and major newspapers seek his opinion pieces. He is a regular participant in panel discussions, talkback sessions and media briefings, providing accurate information for journalists and the general community.
Douglas Sheil
Communicating Science Award (Nominee)
Douglas and his team have worked tirelessly to ensure the voices of remote and marginalized forest dwellers are heard. They've spent months in isolated villages learning which aspects of the landscape are of livelihood, cultural and environmental value to local communities, as well as carrying out more technical assessments.
Douglas has developed creative ways to communicate these findings to various stakeholders in order to improve forest management, with his innovative approach going well beyond the traditional media of books, reports and journal articles. For example, noting the local popularity of Bollywood posters in Malinau, his team produced and distributed 400 of its own 'open-book' posters, with vibrant forest features accompanied by simple text, reflecting the local communities' views.
Douglas and his team have used many other unique communication methods, and have recently published a peer review article demonstrating that it has significantly influenced the views of villagers, towns-people and civil servants.
Sven Wunder
Outstanding Scientist Award (Nominee)
Sven is a passionate, productive scientist, consistently producing cutting-edge research that tackles the difficult questions. His insights are integral to the design of CIFOR's forest-poverty research agenda, and he is a leading force in ongoing quantitative work on a large global-comparative scale. His work at CIFOR in the fields of forests and poverty, deforestation and payments for environmental services (PES) is among the most cited on the links between deforestation, forest conservation and poverty, in both scientific and popular media.
Sven conceived and pioneered CIFOR's Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) - the innovative collaboration of 40 PhD students producing what will arguably be the most comprehensive database for global public goods research on forest-based livelihoods.
His most landmark research publications "Hamburger connection fuels Amazon destruction" and "Does oil wealth help conserve forests?" have both received worldwide attention, and his 2001 World Development article "Poverty alleviation and tropical forests - what scope for synergies?" is now the single most cited source on "forests and poverty". Sven's total publication count already reaches 65.
Noting the popularity of local Bollywood posters in Malinau, Doug and his team produced and distributed 400 of its own 'open-book' posters with vibrant forest features accompanied by simple text, reflecting the local communities' views.
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