To influence forestry policies and practices, research results must reach many different audiences. Devising strategies to strengthen the flow of information and achieve results is an important aspect of CIFOR’s work.

Improving Access  to Information in Cyberspace

In 2000, CIFOR continued to improve the delivery and access to its information resources both internally and externally. Content on the centre’s Web site expanded significantly, and the site has become a major vehicle for fast and efficient dissemination of information.

            Staff members of CIFOR’s Information Services Group developed Web sites to support workshops and CIFOR initiatives on integrated natural resources management, genetic resources management in ecosystems, financing of sustainable forest management and forests, and the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism. The sites not only provided information about the workshops, but also offered ‘work space’ for posting and reviewing conference papers, discussing issues and obtaining background documents. The Web sites continue to serve as repositories of information and forums for ongoing dialogue.           

            IntraCIFOR—the centre’s Intranet, created in 1999—has now become the main avenue for sharing information throughout the institute. Each programme and department now maintains its own extensive Web pages, which are updated regularly. The available information is wide ranging; it ranges from staff profiles and a schedule of events to supportive services such as research tracking, publications review and financial reporting.

A Strategy for Knowledge Management

As a global research organisation working in collaboration with many partners, CIFOR considers the sharing of knowledge important. So far, however, the staff and management have little understanding of the related principles and practices.

            With support from the CGIAR’s Organisational Change Program, CIFOR in 2000 began examining the role of knowledge management in relation to achieving the centre’s mission, as the foundation for developing a strategy to improve the centre’s flow of knowledge. Exercises were designed to establish a common understanding of knowledge management, identify key steps required to implement it effectively and develop a vision of how it should work, based on the organisational values CIFOR wants to convey (such as excellence, multidisciplinarity, collaboration, cultural sensitivity and a commitment to achieving impact).

            Developing a strategy will entail looking at current operations to determine what changes are needed in three broad areas: processes and systems, information and knowledge content, and people and culture.

            The efforts so far produced a number of lessons that may be useful to other organisations interested in improving their knowledge management:

•   Knowledge management is complex because it deals with how the entire organisation and its staff—not just a single programme or division—manages and transmits information.

•   Acquiring a clear understanding of the difference between ‘knowledge’ and ‘information’, then approaching knowledge management accordingly, is a process that takes some time.

•     Knowledge management is broader than technology or information management issues, as demonstrated by the inclusion of discussions about research management, team building, ‘communities of practice’ and organisational culture.

•   The concept of ‘knowledge sharing’ is easier for people to understand than ‘knowledge management’.

Expanded Media Coverage and Public Awareness

Through the services of several consultants, CIFOR significantly broadened international and national media coverage of its activities in 2000. News reports and feature articles appeared in several new major media outlets, some in relation to international meetings on forestry and environmental issues. In addition, the Communications Unit strengthened relations with The Jakarta Post, an important English-language newspaper for reaching Indonesian decision makers and representatives of international NGOs and the donor community in Indonesia. The effort led to increased coverage of CIFOR’s work by the newspaper throughout theyear.

            Among the newspaper articles published in 2000 was a lengthy piece in November in the UK’s Financial Times. It was tied to international meetings on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. Titled ‘The Carbon Trappers’, the article by consultant Charlie Pye-Smith explored the pros and cons of including forest projects in the CDC, which was a major topic of discussion among the climate change policy makers meeting in The Hague. Comments by CIFOR’s Kenneth MacDicken and Joyotee Smith were included in the article and in a related report on carbon sequestration produced for the BBC World Service’s ‘One Planet’ programme. Pye-Smith also produced a 30-minute ‘Omnibus’ feature for the BBC World Service on CIFOR’s forest fire research in Indonesia, based on a journey through Sumatra with CIFOR scientist Grahame Applegate. A related article was published by The Jakarta Post.

            In December, a news report by the Bloomberg financial news service and a news release issued by CIFOR generated widespread interest in Chris Barr’s in-depth report on Indonesian pulp and paper companies. CIFOR received more than 400 requests for the paper, which was posted on the centre’s Web site for easy access.

            In February 2001, the International Herald Tribune’s opinion section featured an article by CIFOR Director General Jeffrey Sayer, titled ‘Get the Forest People on Your Side’. It described his conversations with villagers in Indonesian Borneo, in which they explained how they use and value the forests around them. The article ended with an appeal for policy makers to remember the needs of forest-dependent people in designing international forestry and conservation programmes.

            Among other public awareness activities during the year, CIFOR organised a satellite meeting at the IUFRO World Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During the event, CIFOR presented an award to Mariliza Tiscay-Ruscoe of the University of the Philippines Los Banos. Her post-graduate thesis in forestry was selected as the best by a panel of CIFOR scientists who judged entries in a new student competition sponsored by the ASEAN Forestry Students Association.

Wide Array of Publications —Now on a Single CD-ROM

CIFOR published and disseminated a wide range of publications in 2000, intended for different audiences: 10 monographs and 7 Occasional Papers; 3 issues of the 12-page newsletter, CIFOR News, each in English, French and Spanish; the centre’s Annual Report; Research Abstracts, also in English, French and Spanish; several policy briefs; a number of posters and brochures; and a desk calendar. External publications by CIFOR staff in 2000 included more than 75 journal articles, books and book chapters [see Annexes].

            A special publication in 2000—the first of its kind for CIFOR—was a 48-page art-quality book featuring black and white photographs of the Punan people who live in the forests of Indonesian Borneo, where CIFOR does extensive research. French photographer Christophe Kuhn took the photos over a two-month period [see page 46]. The book was published by CIFOR with financial support from Institute de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD).

            CIFOR also issued an updated edition of its CD-ROM containing all the centre’s publications from 1993 through 2000. It includes the full text of the publications along with citations and abstracts of all papers published externally by CIFOR staff over the seven-year span. The full-text documents are prepared in PDF (Portable Document Format), which enables users to read and print a document as it appeared in its original form. The CD-ROM also features an easy-to-use search capability.

In 2000, a Deeper Look at Impact

In any research endeavour, the bottom-line question is: What difference does it make? How will the findings improve the quality of life or increase our ability to solve a problem? For CIFOR, like its partner CGIAR institutions, the issue of impact assessment is important to insure that the centre meets its mission.

            In past years, a major focus of attention was identifying ‘impact pathways’—that is, recognising the needs and capabilities of targeted beneficiaries and designing research projects in ways that should lead to on-the-ground changes. This is still an important aspect of CIFOR’s research. In 2000, however, another important element of impact assessment took centre stage: priority-setting. Aided by a ‘simulation workshop’ in April, CIFOR worked to devised better in-house methods to determine priorities in strategic areas of research and analyse research ‘portfolios’ at the project level.

            The ‘portfolio analysis’ technique involves a scoring-and-weighting measurement of five key criteria [see chart], followed by Delphi-type discussion of factors in an individual project that have a high variance of scores. ‘The method is most meaningful when combined with full cost accounting of research’, says Michael Spilsbury, the staff scientist who manages impact assessment at CIFOR. ‘Research managers can use the approach as a tool to analyse the overall portfolio of research investments, not to unilaterally filter out projects with low impact potential’.

            The results of this and related work on research evaluation and impact assessment at CIFOR were presented to an international audience in May at a workshop convened by the CGIAR’s Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, held at FAO headquarters in Rome.

Key Criteria for ‘Portfolio Analysis’

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