Through its leadership, expertise and strong networking with other forestry research institutions, CIFOR has left a mark of influence in all the major tropical regions of the world. This impact is expanding as CIFOR steadily decentralises its research operations – a move aided by the relocation of additional staff scientists to out-posted stations in several countries. The growing presence in key regions enables CIFOR and its partners to better address localised forest-related problems as well as broader concerns.

Priority-Setting in Latin America

As one of the most richly forested tropical areas in the world, Latin America is a primary region for CIFOR’s work. The scope and importance of the Amazon alone poses a special challenge for forestry research, yet forests throughout Central and South America offer a crucial "laboratory" for a wide range of studies relevant to many tropical countries. Among this work, for example, are comprehensive studies of devolution of forest management in several countries. This reflects a trend of decentralisation occurring today in the international forestry community, so the findings will be relevant well beyond this region.

To aid coordination of its extensive network of research in Latin America, CIFOR has

a regional office in Belém, Brazil, hosted at a research complex of EMBRAPA, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Organisation. In May 1999, CIFOR’s Board of Trustees and staff met in Belém and together with EMBRAPA worked to identify opportunities for collaborative research to address problems facing the Amazon. Cesar Sabogal, CIFOR’s Regional Coordinator based in Belém, and his staff organised a day-long Belém Forum, "Research Challenges for Amazonian Forests", that featured an impressive array of scientists, forest managers and representatives of forest users. They discussed major threats and opportunities for the forests and people of Amazonia in the next two decades.

During these meetings, CIFOR and EMBRAPA pledged to strengthen their cooperation in research to help tackle problems in Amazonian forests related to growing threats from development, transmigration, agricultural expansion and resource extraction. One joint initiative that got underway in 1999 is a project to develop an effective management system for sustainable forest operations by Brazilian timber enterprises. Given the rapid changes now affecting the Amazon, another area of considerable attention will be policy issues.

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Collaborative Problem-Solving in Sub-Saharan Africa

Forestry research priorities in Africa are closely linked with wide-scale development needs required to support the continent’s large poor and rural population. In addition, the region’s diversity – ranging from the humid forests of Central Africa to the dry woodlands in the south – requires different strategies for achieving sustainable forest management across ecosystems.

CIFOR already has a significant research portfolio in West-Central Africa, Southern Africa and Madagascar, and several core programmes are poised to expand activities in the region. Field offices in Yaoundé, Cameroon, under the leadership of CIFOR’s Regional Coordinator Ousseynou Ndoye, and in Harare, Zimbabwe, headed by Godwin Kowero, will facilitate this greater outreach. Partnership with countries of the Southern African Development Community is another critical avenue for CIFOR research in this region.

In 1999 CIFOR began a review of its strategy for research in sub-Saharan Africa to determine the most effective ways of deploying its resources to help countries of the region protect their dwindling forests and promote sustainable use of natural resources. A final plan is forthcoming in 2000 centred around the following areas:

1. participating in priority-setting processes and initiatives concerning the CGIAR and African regional and sub-regional organisations;
2. investing further in the existing infrastructure in Yaoundé and Harare while expanding activities to neighbouring countries;
3. building capacity through professional development opportunities for African scientists;
4. reaching policy makers directly with CIFOR’s research results to ensure adoption and policy results; and
5. cultivating relations with specialised institutions in OECD countries to help secure finding for research in the African region
   

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Wide Network of Studies in Asia-Pacific Countries

CIFOR research in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, Nepal and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region spans a wide continuum of forest-related problems. This network offers an opportunity for comparative studies that can lead to more generalisable knowledge while also benefiting the individual countries and research sites.

China is a critical area of focus because it has one of the lowest ratios of forest per capita in the world, yet those forests provide income and sustenance to an estimated 80 million people, many of them among the country’s poorest. The main areas of focus are non-timber forest products, plantations, improvement of livelihoods and policy development. A major ongoing study has been investigating the full cycle of bamboo production and marketing, with the aim of ensuring the continued viability of this critical sector for wide-scale employment. Research on plantation forestry is important because major erosion associated with deforestation has led to a ban on logging in China’s natural forests, thus making tree plantations the primary source of raw material for the timber industry. In May 1999, CIFOR along with the Chinese Academy of Forestry hosted a special seminar on "Forests and People in China: Partnerships and Perspectives" in Beijing during the CGIAR Mid-Term Meeting. Donors and partners attended the lunchtime event, which featured scientific presentations by researchers from CIFOR and collaborating institutions in China.

Studies in Indonesia make up a considerable part of CIFOR’s research portfolio. This is fitting because Indonesia is not only CIFOR’s host country, but its forests are remarkably rich in biological diversity; thousands of plant and animal species endemic to the region are found nowhere else. At the same time, the forestry situation in Indonesia is highly representative of the situation in many other countries today. Discovering ways to balance the intense competition for access to forests and their resources while protecting forest-based livelihoods, biodiversity and long-term survival of forests holds lessons that will be useful throughout the tropics.

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Bulungan Research Forest: Toward Model Practices

A 300,000-hectare area of forest in East Kalimantan’s Bulungan Regency is a research site jointly operated by CIFOR and Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops. The purpose of this project, which is headed by Kuswata Kartawinata, is to test ways of translating the concept of sustainable forest management into concrete practices.

Timber, mining and plantation ventures operate in the area, alongside protected forests, traditional (adat) forests, agriculture, hunting, and other subsistence and income-generating activities that are important to more than two dozen villages of Dayak people. This offers an ideal setting in which to investigate many aspects of integrated forest conservation and use. CIFOR is conducting a wide range of studies at Bulungan related to sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation, non-timber forest product development and community management of forests. Numerous Indonesian and international researchers, as well as local villagers, collaborate with CIFOR in this work.

The International Tropical Timber Organisation has provided major support for research at Bulungan Forest. Other assistance has come from the Government of Indonesia, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, CIRAD-Forêt of France and the United States Forest Service, while additional funders sponsor many individual projects.

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