One of the most urgent tasks facing the world is to save the forests for the future, while making sure they still provide timber, food and a living for the hundreds of millions of people who rely on them. Tropical forests yield everything from food and medicinal plants, to fibre and building materials. They play a major role in the earth's weather cycle, yet every year over 12 million hectares are destroyed, an area the size of Greece.

As an international forest research institute, CIFOR is engaged in all of these issues. Its work is making a major contribution to improving the livelihoods of people in the tropics and to conserve tropical forests.

CIFOR’s research

CIFOR scientists work in partnership with key institutions and individuals in developing and industrialized nations. Its three research programmes address the needs of the rural poor as well as environmental concerns:

• Environmental services and the sustainable use of forests oversees research on biodiversity, carbon, fires, watershed functions, and the sustainable management and harvesting of forest products.
• Forests and governance examines the process of making and implementing decisions about the management of forests by people and organizations beyond the scale of the individual household or small enterprise.
• Forests and livelihoods closely investigates how forest resources and their management, use and trade contribute to the livelihoods of the rural and urban poor.

Communicating CIFOR’s findings

Effective knowledge management and communications is crucial to promoting the role of sustainable forest management in reducing proverty. CIFOR uses a range of media, public awareness, publishing and information dissemination strategies to deliver its findings to hundreds of thousands of stakeholders throughout the world, with particular emphasis on developing countries.

CIFOR’s impact

CIFOR and its partners have a significant impact at international, regional and local levels.

International

CIFOR has helped shape the global debate on forests by working with a variety of partners. These include the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Forum on Forests, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the World Bank, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the World Conservation Union, the Food and Agricultural Organization, and a range of other international and non-governmental organisations.

CIFOR has contributed significantly to the aims and directions of the World Bank’s new forest strategy and policy. It has played a key role in promoting the Global Environment Facility’s investment activities to include production forests and other non-protected areas.

Regional

In Latin America, CIFOR has developed ways to reduce the impact of logging on forests in ways that actually increase the income of the logging companies. In Africa, CIFOR is working to conserve the forests of the Congo basin in ways that still allow local people to use the forest to earn a living. Also in Africa, FAO and CIFOR have joined forces to assess and strengthen the capacity of African and Asian forestry research institutions. In Asia, CIFOR is one of the four leading partners of the new Asian Forest Partnership, together with the governments of Japan and Indonesia, and The Nature Conservancy.

National

In Nepal, CIFOR is pioneering ways to encourage forest dependent people to work together to manage their forests better and increase their incomes. In Indonesia, CIFOR is researching the causes of forest fires that annually blanket the region with smoke and haze, as well as studying the link between deforestation and excess debt among forest related companies. Also in Indonesia, CIFOR is the Government’s key partner in researching and implementing a comprehensive social forestry initiative aimed at ensuring Indonesia’s remaining tropical rainforests are managed sustainably. In Zimbabwe, CIFOR's innovative technique of adaptive and collaborative management is allowing the rural poor to improve their livelihoods.

A centre without walls

CIFOR was created in 1993 by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, an association of governments and private foundations. CIFOR employs over 150 staff at its headquarters in Bogor, Indonesia and at its regional offices in Brazil, Cameroon and Zimbabwe. It works in over 30 countries and has links with more than 300 researchers in 50 international, regional and national organisations. Governed by a board of trustees with 15 members from 12 countries, CIFOR receives contributions from over 50 governments and funding agencies.