CGIAR launches international forestry research centre
A new international research organization is being set up to study ways to improve tree growing, management and utilization in developing countries (dry and humid tropics). Named the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), it was officially created at the annual meeting of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), held in Washington, D.C., in October and November of 1991.
The creation of CIFOR is the result of intensive study and international meetings which began in 1988. The urgency of bringing together and filling out the hither to badly neglected body of tropical forestry research was first recommended at the 1987 Bellagio I conference, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, FAO, the World Resources Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Bellagio II conference in 1988 specifically focused attention on forestry research and began to explore the kinds of research and the institutional base that would be required to deal with this task of potentially historic significance.
At about this time CGIAR came actively into the picture. The consultative group functions as an umbrella organization for channelling funds for agricultural research from its donor members to specific member research institutes. In addition, CGIAR gives policy guidance and coherence to the work of these member institutes through its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), which is made up of leading agricultural scientists from throughout the world. The CGIAR secretariat is housed at the World Bank in Washington and the TAC secretariat is located at FAO in Rome. Comprising 41 donor members and 17 institutes, CGIAR has made a mayor contribution to increasing agricultural productivity and food security through its past work on the breeding of improved varieties of rice, wheat, maize and other major crops.
While the earlier work of CGIAR (up to 1988) had a strong bias toward increasing production of commodity food crops, more recently, greater emphasis is being directed to research in the areas of sustainability, resource management and environment. In fact, nine of the major CGIAR centres are or will be undertaking forestry or agroforestry-related research. For example, the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), which was created in 1978 with a mandate to promote and develop agroforestry research, has recently been brought into the CGIAR system. Its strategic plan puts strong emphasis on the development of agroforestry technologies that will contribute to sustainable land-use options for deforested lands and forest fallows in the humid wet tropics. The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has an established programme based on alley cropping which is now being broadened to include other agroforestry cropping systems. The International Centre for Livestock Research in Africa (ILCA) has a programme to investigate the potential of multipurpose trees in different production systems. The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Cali, Colombia, is evolving into a regional research centre that will be tackling problems of how to increase agricultural productivity while ensuring soil, water and forest conservation in three major agro-ecological zones of Latin and Central America.
Early in 1991, the responsibility for preparing and launching the new forestry research institution, as well as for recruiting a nucleus staff, was given by CGIAR to the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in Canberra, which put Dr Ian Bevege, its Principal Adviser and a forestry research specialist, in charge of the project. In his presentation to CGIAR in November 1991, Dr Bevege defined CIFOR's priority as confronting the most serious environmental consequences of deforestation in the tropics; that is, the ability of developing nations to practice sustainable agriculture and attend to the most basic needs of people. The problem of tropical deforestation, he said, "is really not a forestry problem but a forests and agriculture problem involving population growth." This perspective is being reflected throughout the CGIAR. Specifically, the new institute will focus on:
· understanding the physical, biological, economic and social environment of present and potential forestry systems in developing countries;· providing information and advice to assist in making policy decisions about forest land uses (in collaboration with other appropriate agencias);
· increasing national forestry and agroforestry research capacity, providing information, organizing professional exchanges and supplying materials to collaborators in the developing world ( in cooperation with other agencies). The headquarters of CIFOR will be located in an Asian country, yet to be determined, and will be supported by regional offices in the Asia and Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions.
CIFOR will employ a multidisciplinary group of foresters, agriculturalists, ecologists, sociologists, anthropologists, economists and specialists in land tenure and land-use policy-making, led by a director-general on a three-year, renewable appointment. To facilitate a rapid start to work, CIFOR will not initially establish its own research facilities, but rather will conduct collaborative and contractual research, including support to networks of existing institutes. According to Dr Bevege, the institutes in the network through which CIFOR will work will be in both developing and developed countries. "it doesn't matter where the research comes from as long as it fits the needs that we face, he said. "We are looking at the research that is being done by institutes around the world with an eye also to linking or associating it with similar and complementary work".
Financing to start CIFOR came from the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. According to Mr A. von der Osten, Executive Secretary of CGIAR, CIFOR received US$ 500000 in 1991, and this is expected to increase to about US$ 10 or 12 million per year over the next two to three years.
Taken together, CGIAR forestry funding allocations to ICRAF, CIFOR, IBPGR, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the regional centres (IITA, CIAT and ICRISAT) are targeted to reach about US$ 50 million per year by 1995, which is in line with the Bellagio II task force recommendations.
CIFOR will be guided in its work by an international, multidisciplinary board of trustees consisting of 12 to 15 persons who will serve in their personal and professional capacities and not as representatives of governments or organizations.
To date, for tropical forestry there has been nothing even remotely comparable to the attention and foreign aid assistance that have gone into tropical agriculture research. Where it exists, tropical forestry research tends to be spread over a wide range of subjects and is characterized by large blank spaces. The biologically complex nature of the tropical forests and their location in developing countries helps to explain this condition. It also speaks for the need for research done through an internationally coordinated network of institutes that can focus on globally relevant strategic research and interact closely with national forestry and agroforestry research institutions, which will continue to carry the main responsibility for adaptive research.
Those interested in following the development of CIFOR may obtain a free subscription to its newsletter, Inforesearch, by contacting ACIAR, CPO Box 1571, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Tel. (06)2488588; Fax. (06)2573051.
FAO introduces forest harvesting bulletin
The Harvesting and Transport Branch of the FAO Forest Products Division has launched a forest harvesting bulletin to strengthen networking among forest harvesting experts, training, education and research institutions and FAO. Its main objective is to facilitate the exchange of information and experience and to enhance sound forest harvest operations development in natural and plantation forests. The first, biannual issue concentrates on the proposed FAO coordinated action programme for forest harvesting training in developing countries, the primary objectives of which are: to increase capabilities to integrate environmental and socio-economic concerns in forest harvesting planning, execution and control; to improve the quality and availability of forest harvesting training at the worker, technical and supervisory levels; and to develop and promote appropriate forest harvesting systems.
Readers who wish to be included in the distribution list or who have material of potential interest to the bulletin are encouraged to contact Mr R. Heinrich, Chief, Forest Harvesting and Transport Branch, Forest Products Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
