Blog
Ignoring forests won't bring Rio+20's 'future we want'

In June 2012 around 40,000 participants are expected to attend one of the most important environmental gatherings in a generation – Rio+20. A draft agenda has been released, bearing the slogan "The Future We Want" but with forests only mentioned briefly in the text and in isolation to other key issues, CIFOR Principal Scientist Louis Verchot asks: will the summit really help develop a future we want?

Related blog stories:

• Ethiopia pushes for green economy ahead of Rio+20 — forests a major player
  
• Traditional livelihoods decline in Borneo forests as communities rely on mining, logging jobs
• Poor households depend on non-timber forest products in times of crisis
• Cooperation between Lao farmers needed to meet market demands for food

POLEX
On the Menu: Forests

For almost as long as our species has lived on earth, we have fed ourselves directly from the bounty of forests, grasslands and other wild places. Now a largely urban species, having multiplied greatly and changed the face of the earth, we often forget or grossly misunderstand the continuing role of forests in feeding what are now the world's billions. In this POLEX, Christine Padoch, the Director of CIFOR's Forests and Livelihoods Programme, aims to dispel the common myth that forests have ceased to be important to food security, especially as our numbers and needs grow and change.

Related CIFOR publications:

• Food security: why is biodiversity important?
• From foraging to farming among present-day forest hunter-gatherers: consequences on diet and health
• When formal and market-based conservation mechanisms disrupt food sovereignty: Impacts of community conservation and payments for environmental services on an indigenous community of Oaxaca, Mexico
• Empty forests, empty stomachs? Bushmeat and livelihoods in the Congo and Amazon Basins
• Forests, women and health: opportunities and challenges for conservation

Blog
New study highlights need for REDD+ to look beyond carbon

Agricultural policies worldwide have traditionally favoured the conversion of rotating crops to homogenous, permanent rubber plantations because they are often perceived to be more beneficial for local development and better sequesters of carbon. However, this needs to be reconsidered – especially if REDD+ is to be mainstreamed, says a recent study involving the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Related blog stories:

• Push for forest conservation destroying traditional Pakistani yak herding practices
  

Science Dispatch
Rush to acquire African farmland risks countries bearing costs of global resource scarcity, says study

The recent rush to acquire farmland in order to meet rising global demands for food and fuel is putting African countries at risk of bearing the social, economic, and environmental costs of global resource scarcity, says a new CIFOR study.

Related CIFOR publications:

• Land tenure and international investments in agriculture
  
• The anatomy of large-scale farmland acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa
  
• Social sustainability of EU-approved voluntary schemes for biofuels: implications for rural livelihoods
  
• Contemporary processes of large-scale land acquisition by investors: Case studies from sub-Saharan Africa
• Potential land use competition from first-generation biofuel expansion in developing countries
  

Blog
All that glitters is not gold: Precious metal mining in Congo should stay small for the sake of the forest

The harmful impacts of gold and diamond mining on the Congo Basin rainforest can be minimised by ensuring that operations stay small, so locals employed by the sector continue to be motivated to preserve the forests where they live and work, advises a new CIFOR study.

Related CIFOR publications:

• Is the god of diamonds alone? The role of institutions in artisanal mining in forest landscapes, Congo Basin
  
• Where artisanal mines and forest meet: Socio-economic and environmental impacts in the Congo Basin
  
• Institutional aspects of artisanal mining in forest landscapes, western Congo Basin
• Impacts of Artisanal Gold and Diamond Mining on Livelihoods and the Environment in the Sangha Tri-National Park (TNS) Landscape
  

Blog
US biofuel policy excludes Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil amid industry protests

Palm oil industry experts in Indonesia and Malaysia -- two of the world's largest producers -- have criticised a recent analysis by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that biodiesel produced by palm oil does not qualify as a renewable fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.

Related CIFOR publications:

• Biofuels in Malaysia: An analysis of the legal and institutional framework
  
• Environmental and social Impacts from palm based biofuel development in Indonesia
  
• Social sustainability of EU-approved voluntary schemes for biofuels: Implications for rural livelihoods
• The Local Social and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels
  

Upcoming events

7th Global Conference: Pluralism, Inclusion and Citizenship
12 – 14 March 2012, Prague, Czech Republic. more

Global Conference on Women in Agriculture - Empowering Women for Inclusive Growth in Agriculture
13 – 15 March 2012, New Delhi, India. more

Planet Under Pressure, New Knowledge Toward Solutions
26 – 29 March 2012, London, England. more

Society for Applied Anthropology 72nd Annual Meeting
27 – 31 March 2012, Baltimore, USA. more

Events calendar

About CIFOR

CIFOR advances human wellbeing, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to inform policies and practices that affect forests in developing countries. CIFOR is one of 15 centres within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Go to CIFOR's website
Go to CIFOR's blog

Publications

The anatomy of large-scale farmland acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa

CIFOR and Indonesia

Chinese trade and investment and its impacts on forests

Logging concessions and local livelihoods in Cameroon

The domestic market for small-scale chainsaw milling in the Republic of Congo

Guide pour mieux connaître les impacts des projets de REDD+ sur la subsistance des populations

Causes and consequences of shifting cultivation and its alternative in the hill tracts of eastern Bangladesh

Agroforestry for livelihood security in agrarian landscapes of the Padma floodplain in Bangladesh

Learning lessons from smallholder and community forest mosaics to support sustainable livelihoods in the Amazon

Vacancies at CIFOR