To avoid catastrophic climate change, society needs to both end its dependence on fossil fuels and pursue low-emission development through forest conservation, agroforestry, sustainable land management, and restoration of ecosystems. Such nature-based solutions could provide 30–37% of the cost-effective emissions mitigation needed by 2030 to meet the goal of keeping global warming below 1.5–2.0°C.
Through its work on REDD+, forest landscape restoration, sustainable management of wetlands, ecosystem-based adaptation, bioenergy, and transformational change, CIFOR’s climate change team works with policy makers, practitioners and local communities to develop the information, analysis and tools needed to design and implement cost-effective and equitable land-based climate policies and practices.
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About this team
CIFOR works at the nexus between climate change mitigation and adaptation, bioenergy and low emissions development, working with policy makers, practitioners and local communities to develop the information, analysis and tools needed to design and implement cost-effective and equitable climate policies and practices.
Through this research, CIFOR supports the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy; Goal 13: Climate action; Goal 14: Life below water; and Goal 15: Life on Land.
Objectives
Our research considers everything from REDD+, forest landscape restoration (FLR), sustainable management of wetlands, ecosystem-based adaptation, bioenergy, and transformational change, all of which contribute to our goals of cost-effective and equitable climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Climate change mitigation – examining ways to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and to enhance forest carbon stocks, through initiatives like REDD+ and FLR.
Climate change adaptation – analyzing how people and ecosystems adapt to climate change by looking at migration, gender and land rehabilitation.
Bioenergy – assessing trade-offs, synergies and interactions of ecosystem services under different management scenarios in biofuel plantations and woodfuel systems.
Performance assessment – rigorously evaluating the impacts of climate policies, programs and initiatives on forests and people.
Transformational change – working on the elements, drivers, and conditions that constitute and enable transformational change in the land sector and other intersecting sectors.
Underlying forest and climate science –uncovering issues that link climate, water, soils, forestry and biodiversity issues with the most up-to-date models and knowledge.
Team members
Whether wading chest-deep through peat swamps, conducting focus group discussions in forest-reliant communities, or bringing their latest findings and analysis to national and international debates, CIFOR scientists are on the frontlines of climate change research.
Scientific group
Research sites
Our researchers continue to build and maintain strong partnerships in countries where we do research, such as Bhutan, Brazil, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guyana, Indonesia, Uganda, Kenya, Lao PDR, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Peru, Tanzania, Vietnam … and many others.
Research projects
CIFOR’s climate change work draws over two decades of experience in analyzing the drivers of land use change, culminating in rigorously designed projects that meet the highest standards of research.
Project Web Site
Latest knowledge products