CIFOR's Statutes define our Mission as:

to contribute to the sustained well-being of people in developing countries, particularly in the tropics, through collaborative strategic and applied research and related activities in forest systems and forestry, and by promoting the transfer of appropriate new technologies and the adoption of new methods of social organisation, for national development.

In pursuit of that Mission, CIFOR's constitution (See Articles 4, 5 and 6 in Annex 1) has specified the following four objectives. The Board of Trustees has approved the guiding principles to operationalise these objectives, as embodied in this plan.

Objective 1: Understanding the biophysical and socio-economic environments of present and potential forest systems and forestry, and their functional relationships.

This will be achieved by conducting, co-ordinating and catalysing research on such topics as:

• the roles of forests in human societies - society's demands and expectations;
• the structure and dynamics of forest ecosystems and the factors influencing their sustainable productive capacity;
• the impacts of forest use on the external environment and the consequences for forests and forest-dependent people of external environmental changes;
• the factors influencing land-use decisions, including patterns of tenure;
• the characterisation and valuation of forest goods and services and the distribution of forest benefits across social groups and over time

Objective 2 Creating the potential for sustainable improved productivity of forest systems for the benefit of people in developing countries.

This will be achieved by conducting, co-ordinating and catalysing research on such topics as:

• improved forest management options, for all types of tropical forests, from "natural" to highly modified forests and plantations
• the conservation and use of forest genetic resources and biodiversity
• the dissemination and application of improved management options

Objective 3 Providing analysis, information and advice to assist in making policy decisions about forests and land use.

This includes helping to formulate policy options for improving local and global human well-being reliant upon forest ecosystems, including study of policy-making and policy-implementation processes, and analysis and advice on systems of effective community participation.

Objective 4 Increasing national forestry research capacity.

This will be achieved by such activities as:

• capacity building through partnership research
• establishing visiting scientist and specialised training programmes
• strengthening research priority setting and research impact assessment procedures and skills
• encouraging information exchange and enhancing information management, presentation and publishing procedures and skills
• monitoring information concerning the resources and programmes of national forest research systems; and
• promoting south-south co-operation between developing countries.

The first objective addresses two important needs - to identify forest-related problems of international significance, and to improve and synthesise the essential scientific knowledge base that will enable us to address them. While this will provide our problem diagnosis and knowledge platform, the second objective focuses on innovation in problem solving by devising new technological approaches, while the third leads to new policy and institutional options related to the technical developments. It is through these combined approaches that we will generate and disseminate improved, feasible management options.

The final objective aims to strengthen research capacity at the national level with emphasis on promoting a policy-oriented, people-focused research agenda; the new style of conducting forestry research that we are seeking to make a CIFOR hallmark. All CIFOR projects aim to contribute to capacity enhancement through research collaboration.