Message from the Board Chair

In 2016, I was very pleased to be appointed to assume the dual role of Chair of CIFOR’s Board of Trustees and Chair of the Executive Committee, having served on the Board since 2013, including Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of its Program Committee.

It was a highly significant year for CIFOR, with the launch of its new ten-year Strategy and the commitment of the Government of Germany to support the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) for five years and establish a new secretariat in Bonn.

CIFOR’s role as a CGIAR Center expanded greatly in 2016, especially as a partner that believes collaboration is necessary for better impacts. The CGIAR System Council approved the next six years of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) — the world’s largest integrated collaborative research program on forests and trees. CIFOR continued to work with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and launched new partnerships with the CGIAR Research Programs on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM), and on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).

Confidence from funders and partners continues to build in CIFOR’s ability to deliver real impacts for forest landscapes and all of us who depend on them. At a time when agriculture research funding is dwindling, 2016 was CIFOR’s most successful fundraising year since its founding in 1993, thanks to new a more proactive and targeted approach to resource mobilization. The Government of Norway is funding a third phase of CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+, and the European Union will support continuing work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to enhance conservation and livelihoods and train the next generation of Congolese researchers.

Recognition for CIFOR’s policy-oriented analysis also grew. The Center is ranked 5th out of the Top 100 Climate Change Think Tanks by the International Center for Climate Governance, and 25th among the Top 95 Environmental Policy Think Tanks by the University of Pennsylvania. In MOZ web presence rankings, CIFOR climbed to third spot among the 15 CGIAR Centers, drawing more than 1.8 million visits to its online platforms each month.

I look forward to 2017 as CIFOR builds momentum towards its goal of more equitable, resilient and productive forest landscapes, and continues gaining a position as the most innovative international forest research center, specialized in integrating disciplines and partners, to address the complexity of the issues related to the people-forests interaction.

José Joaquín Campos Arce

Chair of the Board
Chair of Executive Committee

Biography >

Top banner photo by O. Girard/CIFOR, and Board Chair photo by A. Sanjaya/CIFOR.