5 August 2016 – The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) today announced a new partnership to collaborate on knowledge, sharing, technical expertise and engagement on some key areas such as sustainable supply of agricultural commodities, business models and services provision to smallholders, innovations in financing mechanisms to provide affordable credit to smallholders, investment models that help build alternative livelihoods for smallholders, and forest management and restoration that account for the needs of smallholders.
The partnership was announced at the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit (APRS) in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. It was formalized in June 2016 under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by SNV’s Chief Executive Officer, Allert van den Ham, and CIFOR’s Director General, Peter Holmgren.
View the APRS event website here.
With a common outlook of landscape-based strategies associated with sustainable agricultural supply and improved smallholders livelihoods, which deliver improved benefits for climate change adaptation and mitigation and economic development, CIFOR and SNV have agreed to build on each other’s strengths to further their respective missions.
The partnership and coordination are being led by Richard McNally, SNV Global Coordinator for Climate Change, and Pablo Pacheco, CIFOR Principal Scientist and Team Leader for Value Chains, Finance and Investments.
‘’SNV is very excited to become a strategic partner with CIFOR. This will bring more research and scientific rigor into our more complex programs exploring the relationships between smallholder agriculture, forest protection and landscape management,” McNally said.
“CIFOR sees significant value in this partnership as part of our efforts to link our research to actions in the ground that work for forests, economic development and rural livelihoods. SNV has developed an important capacity that will contribute to link our research to practice in ways that are meaningful to different local realities,” Pacheco said.
SNV is a not-for-profit development organization with a focus on poverty alleviation and sustainable development. CIFOR is a non-profit, scientific facility that conducts research on the most pressing challenges of forest and landscape management. Both have a long-term presence across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a nonprofit, global facility dedicated to advancing human well-being, environmental conservation and equity. Our research and expert analysis help shape effective policy, improve the management of tropical forests and address the needs and perspectives of people who depend on forests for their livelihoods.
CIFOR is a member of the CGIAR Consortium and leads the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. Its work contributes to all four of CGIAR’s goals: reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources.
CIFOR’s headquarters are in Bogor, Indonesia, with offices in Asia, Africa and Latin America.