Media are invited to use a video and text of a story, “Martyr of the Amazon: The legacy of Chico Mendes,” a look back at the activist’s life and the outsize influence his work continues to have for the betterment of the Amazon rainforests of his homeland and the people who live in them.

CIFOR’s parent organization, CGIAR, marks a major milestone — its funding has doubled to $1 billion in just the past five years. With this funding, by 2020, research on forest, trees and agroforestry will prevent deforestation on 0.5 to 1.7 million hectares, reducing carbon emissions by 0.16 to 0.68 billion tons per year. Read more about how CGIAR will use this funding to help change the world.

Peru’s Ministry of the Environment (Ministerio del Ambiente, or MINAM) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) will sign a formal agreement to increase cooperation on research into forestry and sustainable development. The agreement is intended to produce targeted research that better informs the development of government policies as well as practices on the ground by the private sector and civil society organizations for the sustainable development of the forests of the Peruvian Amazon. Peru’s forests extend for nearly 800,000 square kilometers and are home to more than 3 million people.

Global experts made an impassioned plea to change the way the world is tackling food insecurity, climate change, poverty and water scarcity — and warned that UN climate negotiators in Warsaw risked “turning their backs on some of the most vulnerable and poorest people in this world”.

More than 1,000 policymakers, journalists, leaders and experts in forests and agriculture will gather in Poland in November on the sidelines of UN climate talks to participate in a new two-day event: The Global Landscapes Forum. Registration is now open for the event, which combines two smaller events — Agriculture and Rural Development Day and Forest Day — to provide the world’s largest platform for discussing the science and policy behind the world’s most pressing environmental and development challenges.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has launched a new partnership with the China National Forestry Economics and Development Research Center (FEDRC) to improve the monitoring and evaluation of the ‘Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program’ (CCFP) or ‘Grain for Green’, one of the largest reforestation programs in the world.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has renewed its partnership with the State Forestry Administration (SFA), the authoritative entity on forests in China.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is making available exclusive rare footage of the critically endangered Javan leopards (Panthera pardus melas) in their native habitat in western Java. Camera traps placed in an Indonesian national park recently captured striking, high-quality images of these elusive, enigmatic creatures in the wild as part of a research project to help monitor wildlife in an area less than 100 kilometers outside of Jakarta.

Central Africa’s forests are at a critical turning point: The population of the Congo is set to double in the next 25 years, logging roads are slowly penetrating previously untouched forest areas, investors are earmarking land for agriculture and mining, and a large population is at risk of the effects of climate change.

Government ministers, donors and the world’s top forestry experts will attend a conference in Cameroon next month to discuss critical issues facing the sustainable management of Central Africa’s forests, the biodiversity they embrace and the people who depend on them.