The second Global Landscapes Forum, to be held on the weekend in the middle of the UNFCCC's COP20, will convene more than 1,500 participants to discuss landscapes approaches and their potential for informing the future UNFCCC agreement and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. CIFOR is coordinating the forum in partnership with UNEP and Peru’s Ministry of Environment, and it is supported by several leading international groups. Click here for more information about this event.

Opportunities are still available to host sessions and have exhibition space. Apply here.

The continued lack of a common reference point to establish the status of forests — whether old-growth, selectively logged, or agroforestry plantations, for example — will hurt future environmental endeavors, researchers write. This can engender a “false sense of accomplishment” when the forests that are reported to cover substantial portions of tropical landscapes barely resemble “old growth.” Read more here.

To adapt to climate change, is it ‘baby steps’ or ‘one giant leap’? At what point do we stop pursuing incremental changes in favor of disruptive, transformative change? Do transformations occur only when it is too late? And what even constitutes a ‘transformation’? Though these distinctions may appear purely academic, they could have significant policy implications, experts say. Read more here.

T20Q is a global project that invites you to nominate the most important research questions for forestry and landscapes. So far, some 1,300 questions have been submitted to help guide the future of knowledge by making sure we ask the right questions. 

Have your say now and invite others to do the same — your voice deserves to be heard.

How are forest communities adapting to climate change? A new toolkit developed in part by CIFOR researchers enables development practitioners to find out. The CRiSTAL-Forest toolkit — now freely available for use here — can guide policy interventions to allow for adaptive governance and to include local strategies, needs and knowledge in adaptation planning. Read more about the toolkit here.