The Centre for International Forestry Research, CIFOR, which has been entrusted with a global mandate to examine and reduce the risks associated with climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, especially where they threaten those least able to afford them, such as poor rural communities who heavily rely on forest, is stepping up its investment in climate change and forest research with the 2007 launch of its Climate Change and Forests Initiative. This initiative embraces two strands of the Centre’s globally mandated research: adaptation and climate change; and, mitigation and climate change. The former looks at how governments and communities can improve the ability of forests to adapt to climate change. The latter examines how forests can best be managed to reduce carbon emissions and at the same time improve the well-being of poor communities that depend on the forests, partly or wholly, for their livelihoods. With the right research informing policy making, sustainable forest management can safeguard existing community livelihoods while generating new income possibilities through compensated avoided deforestation.
