DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (4 December 2011)—With declining conditions in
forests looming as a threat to climate health and the well-being of a
billion impoverished people, the world’s largest consortium of
agricultural researchers announced today an ambitious 10-year global
research program devoted to forests and agroforestry.
The new 10-year CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees, and
Agroforestry aims to reinvigorate efforts to reduce deforestation and
forest degradation and expand the use of trees on farms. The
initiative is focused on the critical importance of forests as natural
“carbon sinks” that can help slow the pace of climate change and the
need to conserve forest biodiversity. CGIAR experts believe that
improved management of forests and trees can play a wider role in
reducing risks for smallholder farmers and improving the well-being of
forest-dependent communities, particularly women and other
disadvantaged groups.
The program will have an initial three-year budget of US$233 million.
While US$90 million of that has already been secured through the CGIAR
Fund, the balance will be raised through additional resource
mobilization efforts.
“We urgently need a strong and sustained effort focused on forest
management and governance, given the crucial role of forests in
confronting some of the most important challenges of our time: climate
change, poverty, and food security,” said Frances Seymour, Director
General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
“Otherwise, we risk the further impoverishment of the billion people
who depend on forests and trees for their livelihoods, continued
carbon emissions from forest destruction and degradation that already
are a significant source of greenhouse gases, and loss of ecosystem
services crucial to sustained agricultural productivity.”
For example, deforestation and land use change contribute an estimated
12 to 18 percent of the world’s total annual carbon emissions, which
are accelerating global warming. Large areas of forests are lost every
day when trees are cleared to make way for food and biofuel
production. In sub-Saharan Africa, overharvest of trees for firewood
and charcoal production is the most common driver of forest
degradation. Unsustainable management practices are also a major
contributor to the desertification of formerly forested areas and have
played a role in the famine now plaguing the Horn of Africa.
Rachel Kyte, Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council, and concurrently Vice
President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, said, “With
this new research program we can create powerful collaborations to
make a major contribution toward greater food security and climate
stability.”
“We must be ambitious and drive innovation, adopt new methods, form
new partnerships and create more capacity if we are to close the time
gap between research discoveries and their impact in real-world
settings,” she said.
The new CGIAR forest program will involve the close collaboration of
four of the world’s leading research centres: the Kenya-based World
Agroforestry Centre, the Indonesia-based CIFOR, the Colombia-based
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (known by its Spanish
acronym CIAT) and the Italy-based Bioversity International. In
addition—and most important for impact—the program will work with
leading national research institutes and other organizations necessary
to complement the core competencies of the CGIAR. It will partner with
knowledge-sharing experts to maximize outreach and will engage policy
and practitioner partners as the immediate clients for its research
results.
The initiative will focus on areas where forests and agroforests that
play a major role in local livelihoods and carbon sequestration (or
other environmental services) are under severe pressure from timber
extraction, agriculture expansion or other threats.
In many tropical countries in Asia, Africa and South America, vast
swathes of forests are being lost to agriculture. There are certainly
times when clearing forests for farms can improve local living
conditions, but often such forest destruction intensifies poverty and
does irreparable harm to valuable ecosystems.
While loss of forests to agriculture is a major concern, there are a
number of CGIAR initiatives exploring the potential of cultivating
trees on farms as a way to sustainably increase rural incomes.
“Roughly 10 percent of the world’s tree cover is found on farms—and
the rate is increasing—making agroforestry an important component of
climate change mitigation and adaptation,” said Tony Simons, Director
General of the World Agroforestry Centre. “In developing countries,
agroforestry systems also are providing cheap and nutritious fodder
for animals along with non- timber forest products, like nuts and
fruit, that boost farm incomes, particularly in households headed by
women.”
Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, said that
the program would also have a strong focus on biodiversity.
“The genetic diversity of the forest trees that people make use of is
still barely understood,” said Frison. “We need to conserve tree
diversity in the face of climate change, and ensure that forest
dwellers continue to have access to the wide range of trees they need
to support thriving communities.”
The five components of the research portfolio include:
Smallholder production systems and markets, which will include a focus
on boosting the productivity and sustainability of both forestry and
agroforestry operations, increasing incomes in forested areas, and
improving policies and institutions that affect land rights for the
rural poor;
Management and conservation of forest and tree resources, which will
involve research into threats affecting important tree species,
conserving high-value tree species, improving silviculture practices,
and developing ways to resolve conflicts over resource rights;
Landscape management of forested areas for environmental services,
biodiversity conservation and livelihoods, which will explore the
drivers and consequences of forest transition—in which deforested and
degraded lands are restored—for environmental goods and services;
Climate change adaptation and mitigation, which will consider how
forests, trees and agroforestry can play a role in climate change
mitigation and also how they can help people adapt to climate change;
and
Impacts of trade and investment on forests and people, which will seek
to understand the effect of forest-related trade and investment and
improve efforts to mitigate the negative impacts and enhance the
positive impacts.
The new forestry program is one of 15 multi-centre programs to be
developed and funded by the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR). To date, the CGIAR has approved a total
of 9 programs, totaling US$2.27 billion, aimed at improving food
security and the sustainable management of the water, soils and
biodiversity that underpin agriculture in the world’s poorest
countries.