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Asia is home to an enormous diversity of ecosystems, from the tropical moist forests of Borneo – home to the endangered orangutan, Sumatran tiger and pygmy elephant – to India’s Western Ghats and Southeast Asia’s carbon-rich mangroves. In the last half century, Asia’s economic development has lifted millions out of poverty. But rapid unsustainable development is threatening the region’s forests, wildlife and traditional livelihoods and diets.
Through its long-term research on issues such as oil palm, peatland fires, climate change mitigation, and land tenure, CIFOR is mapping pathways to a sustainable future for Asia’s forest landscapes.
About our work in Asia
CIFOR’s work in Asia addresses the drivers of deforestation, looking at how initiatives such as REDD+, tenure reform and private sector commitments can help prevent and reverse forest degradation.
Our work
Whether our focus is on sustainable value chains, gender equality or peatland restoration, our aim is to find solutions for both Asia’s forests and the people who rely on them:
- Promoting integrated watershed management to enhance local livelihoods and biodiversity conservation
- Developing and promoting market-based agroforestry options and integrated landscape management for smallholder forestry
- Operationalizing the landscape approach by promoting resilient institutional arrangements supported by relevant policy frameworks that ensure the synergy between various government programs in forest and non-forest areas
- Advancing knowledge-sharing dedicated to partner engagement and dissemination
- Assessing GHG emissions due to mangrove conversions as well as the potential of restoring degraded mangrove and conserving intact mangroves for climate change mitigation
- Working with government agencies at national and subnational levels, as well as civil society, on adaptation coping strategies for sea level rise, food security and tenure security
- Engaging with government agencies, under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, through our participation in the Blue Carbon Scientific Working Group and the International Partnership for Blue Carbon
- Assessing the potential of bioenergy production on degraded land in Indonesia. Conducting action research and demonstration trials of key selected bioenergy tree species and determining the fuel/energy productivity and efficiency of various tree species.
Research site
Our researchers continue to build and maintain strong partnerships in countries where we do research
