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Research Programmes

Tropical forests & climate change mitigation with a focus on forest degradation

Land-use change through deforestation is a significant source of carbon emissions and an active contributor to global warming. Deforestation has contributed from 1.6GtC to 5.9 GtC per year in the 1990s (IPCC 2007). This represents about one fifth of current global carbon emissions, which is more than what comes from the fossil fuel-intensive global transport sector (IPCC 2001a, 2001b; Stern 2006). MORE

Enhancing capacity of local people and institutions to manage forest ecosystems

Managing forest ecosystems has been a way of life for many developing and third world countries, as these forest ecosystems have provided them with the necessities that has given life to its many inhabitants that depend on the forest ecosystems for their day to day survival. The forest ecosystem has provided them with direct benefits such as timber, food, shelter, medicine, fuelwood, sustainable supply of clean water, fresh air as well as other indirect benefits such as providing a place where protein can be obtained through hunting so that they could have a balanced diet. The forest ecosystems perform many services on people’s behalf also, by delivering clean water to rivers, lakes and dams, hold soils together, store carbon, and provide habitat for a large part of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity. MORE

Optimising income generation from forest goods and services

Since time immemorial local people have depended on natural resources for their sustenance. They have developed unique and ingenious ways of adapting to their environment to provide for their needs while simultaneously supplying goods and services for their communities and the wider national and global populace. Inherent in the lifestyle of local peoples is the innate ability to guarantee that their activities ensure benefits for current generations and those yet unborn. Recently, the scale and scope of their activity have attained greater acknowledgement and importance on global environmental and socio-economic agendas. MORE

Impacts of climate change on the practices and livelihoods of local people

Climate change constitutes additional burden besides poverty, diseases, illiteracy, weak institutional capacity, wars, unstable political governments, poor infrastructure and other global environmental change issues (e.g. land use change, land degradation, desertification, biodiversity loss etc) limiting development in several ACP countries from realizing major global targets like the millennium development goals. Although it is not just poor, rural people who are affected by climate change, but also wealthy urban elites, such as those with homes and holiday cottages on coasts or floodplains, there is a strong case for “putting the vulnerable first”. MORE