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New 10-year research initiative
to protect forests and reduce
risks for forest communities
Across the whole tropical realm, vast swathes of
woodlands and forests are being lost. Clearing forests
for farms or cities can improve local living conditions,
but often forest destruction intensifies poverty and does
irreparable harm to valuable ecosystems.
With declining forest areas looming as a major threat
to climate health and the wellbeing of a billion
impoverished people, in 2011 the CGIAR launched a 10-
year global research programme devoted to forests, trees
and agroforestry.
The CGIAR chose CIFOR to lead this programme in
partnership with three other CGIAR Centers – the World
Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), International Center for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Bioversity International –
and with many other international and national partners.
The CGIAR Research Programme
Forests, Trees and
Agroforestry
aims to reinvigorate efforts to reduce
deforestation and forest degradation and expand the
cultivation of trees on farms as a way to sustainably
increase rural incomes. As part of its mandate, the
programme looks at conserving forest biodiversity and
the critical importance of forests as natural ‘carbon sinks’
that can keep carbon out of the atmosphere and help
slow the pace of climate change.
It is believed that improved management of forests
and trees can reduce risks for smallholder farmers
and improve the wellbeing of forest-dependent
people, particularly women and other commonly
disadvantaged groups.
‘We urgently need a strong and sustained effort focused
on forest management and governance, given the crucial
role of forests in confronting some of the most important
challenges of our time: climate change, poverty and food
security,’ said Frances Seymour, CIFOR Director General.
The programme targets tropical forests and woodlands,
which make up about 46% of the global forest cover.
In 10 years it is expected to have contributed to a yearly
reduction of deforestation and forest degradation of
between 0.5 and 1.7 million hectares, and to have
increased sustainable production and management
practices of tropical forests resulting in an expected
yearly reduction of between 0.16 and 0.68 gigatonnes of
carbon-dioxide emissions.
Photo by Tedi Kresna Wardhana/CIFOR