CIFOR’s Vision
CIFOR is a global knowledge organisation committed  to enhancing the benefits of forests for all people.

CIFOR at a Glance

The ‘Earth Summit’ and other environmental forums heightened recognition of the need for scientific knowledge about the environmental, social and economic consequences of forest loss. CIFOR was founded in 1993 to help address that concern.
Basic facts about CIFOR:

• The 16th research centre affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

• Headquarters in Bogor, Indonesia, with regional offices in Brazil, Cameroon and Zimbabwe

• Total staff of 150, including 45 internationally recruited scientists in physical and social sciences

• Supported by institutional and targeted funds from donors, with an annual budget of $13 million in 2000

• Conducts research in 30 tropical and sub-tropical countries

• Collaborates with national forestry institutions, universities, research institutes, conservation groups, donor and development agencies, policy making bodies, NGOs and other CGIAR centres

CIFOR’s Institutional Values

All who work for or with CIFOR endeavour to foster an institutional culture that:

• is driven by a commitment to eradicating poverty and protecting the environment

• is impact-oriented and committed to the equitable provision of knowledge
  as an international public good

• emphasises scientific partnership based on mutual respect and sharing of credit

• stimulates intellectual growth by promoting creativity, a spirit of inquiry
  and constant questioning of conventional wisdom

• fosters professionalism and excellence by promoting adherence
  to the highest scientific and ethical standards

• respects the intellectual property rights of others

• honours hard work and draws the best from each one of us

• fosters a team spirit while defending independence of thought

• emphasises understanding of local realities but brings to bear
  a global perspective for the benefit of communities that depend on forests

• avoids discrimination or harassment on the grounds of race, religion, sex, nationality,
  ethnic origin, age, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status or hierarchical status

• strives to realise the benefits of diversity

• values accountability, honesty, transparency and fair sharing of information

• expects discretion and demands respect for others in the conduct of all activities

• respects laws, customs and cultural values where we work

• permits the staff to exercise their personal rights of citizenship
  while protecting the non-political nature of CIFOR

• expects exemplary citizenship by the staff in the communities in which we work and live

Products of CIFOR’s Research

• Insight into the causes and processes of forest loss and degradation

• Analysis of forestry issues to aid development of global and national policies

• Information to expand economic benefits of forest product development

• Innovative approaches to increase stakeholder participation in forest management

• Tools, strategies and ‘best practices’ for improved forest management

• Capacity building for national scientists

• Methods to make tropical plantations sustainable and locally beneficial

• Knowledge to assist biodiversity conservation

• Support for integrated approaches to natural resource management

• Scientific information to implement better forest management

A Conceptual Framework to Bring High-Priority Problems to the Forefront

CIFOR recently developed a Conceptual Framework to aid the process of deciding what forest-related problems the centre can and should address. CIFOR’s mission is to provide a scientific underpinning to efforts aimed at preventing environmental degradation and ending poverty among forest-dependent people.  The Framework begins by identifying a group of problems that hinder progress in these two areas and make it difficult to  achieve sound forest management and use. The problems fall into four general categories:

• Growing conflict and competition related to increased demand for land and other forest resources

• Inequitable distribution of costs and benefits in forest and land use

• Failure to adopt ‘best practices’

• Lack of effective institutions needed to bring about positive change

   The Framework identifies the underlying causes of these problems, which are rooted in the ways that people use and manage forests and forest resources. This suggests that for CIFOR to achieve the greatest impact, it must identify researchable problems most likely to produce results that will enable people to act in ways that support environmental protection and sustainable forest use.

   Like any organisation, CIFOR has limited resources and must establish priorities. ‘Besides helping identify those areas where CIFOR can and should focus its efforts, the Framework is useful in determining problem areas that are beyond our present mandate and capacity’, says Director of Research Kenneth MacDicken.

A Broader View of Forests

At the dawn of a new millennium, society recognises more than ever before the importance of the world’s tropical forests and woodlands and the need to conserve them for both present and future benefits. Yet, wide-scale deforestation continues. According to the FAO’s State of the World’s Forests 1997, developing countries lost 13.7 million hectares of natural forest annually from 1990 to 1995. Millions more hectares are degraded and have lost their productivecapacity.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) works to find ways of managing forests and woodlands in tropical and sub-tropical areas to ensure their survival. But forest protection entails more than just saving trees.

Forests are complex biological systems that provide society with a wide range of essential products—timber, fuelwood, food, medicine and raw materials. They also provide environmental services such as protection of watersheds and soils and carbon storage to mitigate climate change. Tropical forests alone house more than half of all the world’s plant and animal species, which are threatened by a host of pressures associated with human activities.

For millions of poor people in developing countries, forests and woodlands are a cherished home as well as a critical source of goods for subsistence and income.
The World Bank notes in its Development Report 2000/2001 that people are often poor because they are powerless to influence the social and economic factors that determine their well-being. They are also powerless because they are poor. To escape poverty, forest-dependent people must be empowered so they can achieve greater security of forest access and benefits.

Satisfying this broad range of human and ecological demands requires new approaches to the stewardship of our forests, and a different kind of research. All of CIFOR’s work supports a vision of forest management based on two key premises: First, forests must be managed to fulfill a range of environmental, social, economic and cultural functions rather than serving only single interests, such as logging or conservation, as in the past. Second, the needs and interests of forest-dependent communities and other stakeholders must be taken into account in any land-use planning and decisions about forest management and conservation.

The Nature of CIFOR’s Research

Reflecting the complexity of forest management today, CIFOR’s research is:

• multidisciplinary, addressing social, technical and economic dimensions of forest use and conservation

• collaborative, based on partnerships to achieve wide impact

• decentralised, for greater relevance and responsiveness
  to local conditions

• multiscale, to consider different aspects of forest issues at local, national, regional and international levels

• policy relevant, Cifor lasting results

CIFOR’s Problem-Oriented Research Agenda

The Problem: Forests are ecosystems that provide society with many different products and services. Yet most tropical forests are not managed in ways that take into account the complex interactions within the ecological system and among the goods and services demanded by various stakeholders.

Toward Solutions: CIFOR actively promotes the development and adoption of integrated approaches to forest management. The Sustainable Forest Management Programme works to develop information, tools and practices to help policymakers and forest managers better understand the costs and benefits to various stakeholders of different management options.

The Problem: The need for agricultural land
to feed the world’s growing population and steady demand for building materials, pulp and paper, and other wood products is intensifying the loss of increasingly scarce natural forests in tropical countries.

Toward Solutions: The Plantations Programme produces knowledge needed to make planted forests an economically viable and socially acceptable alternative source of wood in tropical regions.

The Problem: Many people recognise the need to preserve the biological diversity that tropical forests harbour. How can that be reconciled with human development needs and society’s reluctance to put areas of the world off limits to human use?

Toward Solutions: The Biodiversity Conservation Programme seeks strategies for integrating conservation and sustainable use of genetic and other biological resources into broad-based management of forests.

The Problem: Policies made by governments and international institutions in non-forest sectors can inadvertently but dramatically contribute to forest loss and degradation. Yet these indirect causes are often overlooked, and their connection with deforestation is not well understood.

Toward Solutions: The Underlying Causes of Deforestation, Forest Degradation and Changes in Human Welfare Programme analyses extra-sectoral factors that affect forest conditions and the livelihoods of forest-dependent people, to help guide policy reform.

The Problem: Local communities have generally been excluded from decisions about forest management and land use in favour of more powerful interests. As a result, millions of poor people in developing countries lack access to the forests they depend on for daily needs.

Toward Solutions: Techniques being designed by the Local People, Devolution and Adaptive Co-Management of Forests Programme offer a means for diverse stakeholders to negotiate the use of surrounding forests for mutual benefits.

The Problem: Forest products are often important for rural livelihoods. There is a critical need for knowledge about strategies that promote development of forest products while averting unsustainable use of the resources.

Toward Solutions: The Forest Products and People Programme investigates forest product use and trade in relation to conservation and development, as the basis for developing sound NTFP policies and guiding investment decisions.

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