CIFOR's Director General outlines five issues that can bring about the transformational change REDD+ requires.

CIFOR scientists Lou Verchot and Steve Leonard dicuss the main topics of debate in climate change policy.

Three scientists discuss the promise and complications of the landscape approach.

“There is a tremendous need to design low-cost, rigorous and sustainable strategies for MRV of REDD+ safeguards.”

In theory, the plan seemed rather simple: a financial mechanism to reduce carbon emissions by incentivizing the protection of forests. In practice, REDD+ has struggled to achieve what it aims to do—reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. As climate negotiators head to Lima for the UNFCCC COP, where does REDD+ stand now, and after nearly eight years, why is it still in most countries in the early, “readiness” stage? Politics and power struggles explain part of the problem, a leading expert says, pointing to difficulties in designing—and implementing—policies that an ever-growing number of stakeholders can agree on. “The honeymoon phase is over,” said Maria Brockhaus, a senior scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in a recent interview. “You have actors that no longer happily agree on the broad idea, that strongly disagree on how to realize that idea.”

A simple device could spell relief for Ethiopia’s beleaguered forests by making cooking more efficient while reducing carbon emissions.

“It would be wonderful if Peru could pick its monitoring system and establish a reference level by the COP in Lima.”

A hidden gradient of salinity stretches beneath mangroves. To understand how climate change affects this, it must first be measured.

  NEW YORK—The outcomes of the recent UN Climate Summit offer an opportunity for mainstreaming a more holistic approach to forests, climate change and development, according to Peter Holmgren, director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). It will be up to the science community to do something … to provide the knowledge... Read more

Forests will be high on the agenda amid the negotiations, debates and search for solutions – and rightfully so.