The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is committed to advancing human well-being, equity and environmental integrity by conducting innovative research, developing partners’ capacity and actively engaging in dialogue with all stakeholders to inform policies and practices that affect forests and people.
The world today is characterized by continually evolving development and enviroment challenges. At the same time, we see additional and increased risks to humanity, but also new opportunities for improved livelihoods.
CIFOR’s response to these challenges and opportunities is captured in the 2016-2025 strategy, Stepping up to the new climate and development agenda.
The strategy also sets out CIFOR’s theory of change, values, vision, mission and pillars.
The strategy structures CIFOR’s research into six thematic work areas, as follows.
Forests and human well-being: CIFOR aims to supply the evidence needed for policy decisions that enhance the contribution of forests to human well-being and prosperity and that make use of forests and their services and products to reduce poverty.
Sustainable landscapes and food: CIFOR provides a broad perspective and landscape-scale comparisons across sites of the contributions that forests and tree-based agricultural systems make to healthy and diverse diets.
Equal opportunities, gender, justice and tenure: CIFOR evaluates how the devolution of forest rights affects forests and conservation outcomes, livelihoods and local governance and thus informs decision-makers. CIFOR also seeks to advance gender equity and the empowerment of women and girls.
Climate change, energy and low-carbon development: CIFOR’s research aims to improve not only technical understanding of climate change and its interactions with forests and landscapes, but also understanding of the social implications of climate change, so that the interests of rural land users are reflected in decision making.
Value chains, finance and investment: CIFOR aims to support various governance arrangements for achieving sustainability, along with inclusive business models that can improve benefit sharing, upgrade smallholder systems, and support responsible finance.
Forest management and restoration: Research in this area addresses two issues: how rural people in developing countries can access forest resources and how forest resources can be managed more equitably while increasing forest production from multiple resources.
Read more about CIFOR in our Corporate Publications and visit our news site Forests News.
