To influence policy and practice, research must be presented in ways that
reach the people who really matter, whether they are decision makers,
environmentalists or community leaders. CIFOR produces a wide range of
materials, from peer-reviewed journal articles and books to policy briefs
and manuals, tailored for different audiences. It also benefits from the
outreach activities of other organisations such as the Regional Community
Forestry Training Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC).
‘When I arrived at RECOFTC, I was astonished by how much CIFOR material
we were using for our training,’ says Yurdi Yasmi, who spent nine years at
CIFOR before joining RECOFTC in 2007 as a senior programme officer.
RECOFTC is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) that
specialises in capacity building for community forestry. It works with
governments, research organisations, other NGOs, civil society, the private
sector and local people to promote and improve community forestry across the
Asia–Pacific region.
RECOFTC’s recently established Regional and Country Analysis and Support
Programme is responsible for analysing the key issues facing community
forestry, both in the region and in individual countries. The emphasis is on
demonstrating the lessons learned from previous experiences in community
forestry and providing information to influence policy and practice. The
programme also provides analysis and information for other units within
RECOFTC.
‘What we’re trying to do is to bridge the gap between scientists who work
for organisations like CIFOR and people on the ground,’ says Yurdi. ‘We do
this by reshaping, repackaging and stripping out the jargon and academic
terms—in other words, by making the research more readily accessible to the
people who can use it in their own languages.’
Over a dozen CIFOR research projects have provided information which
RECOFTC has used in one way or another. CIFOR’s work on Criteria and
Indicators (C&I) has been particularly useful, says Yurdi. The C&I toolbox,
which helps forest users to analyse their progress towards better forest
management, has been used and adapted in many training sessions related to
community forestry. CIFOR’s work on Adaptive Collaborative Management, which
enables local people to take action together to solve their problems, has
been widely used in RECOFTC training programmes. And RECOFTC has also made
use of CIFOR research on non-timber forest products, conflict resolution,
decentralisation and various other topics.
‘We are now turning our attention to climate change,’ says Yurdi, ‘and we
see CIFOR as a primary source of objective information.’
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