In 2024, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) advanced its mission to enhance human well-being, equity, and environmental integrity through science-based solutions in forest and landscape management. Operating in 25 countries with over 860 staff and 370 partners, CIFOR-ICRAF achieved significant milestones, including the protection and improved management of 139 million hectares of land, restoration of 2.5 million hectares of degraded ecosystems, and improved livelihoods for 4.2 million people—half of whom are women. CIFOR’s robust risk management framework, strategic investments, and global initiatives such as the Global Landscapes Forum and Resilient Landscapes platform underscore its growing influence in addressing climate, biodiversity, and food system challenges.
Tag: reports
Audited Financial Statements. 31 December 2024. World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
The 2024 Audited Financial Statements of World Agroforestry (ICRAF) highlight the organization’s continued commitment to leveraging the power of trees to address global challenges related to climate change, biodiversity, and food security. Despite operating in a year marked by record global temperatures and environmental crises, ICRAF, in partnership with CIFOR, advanced its mission through impactful research, capacity building, and strategic partnerships across 60 countries. Key achievements include the restoration of 2.5 million hectares of degraded land, mitigation of 80.5 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent, and improved livelihoods for 4.2 million people, half of whom are women. The report also underscores ICRAF’s robust risk management framework, strategic investments, and the growing influence of its initiatives such as the Global Landscapes Forum and Resilient Landscapes platform.
Danau Sentarum’s wildlife: part 1 : biodiversity value and global importance of Danau Sentarum’s wildlife
Recent survey efforts carried out in the Danau Sentarum National Park suggest that the site comprises faunal biodiversity of a bioregional and global importance. Site faunal inventory has yielded 240 confirmed fish species, or 71 per cent of Boreno’s freshwater fish fauna; not including nineteen potentially new and endemic species awaiting confirmation. This suggest that the site is the most diverse in Indonesia with respect to fish and is also one of the world’s most biodiverse lake systems. There are regionally significant listings of 237 confirmed bird species, and a tentative listing of 143 mammal species and all this provides ample justification for the initiation of immediate habitat and faunal community conservation effort on the site. However, there is not yet enough ecological detail to initiate firmer ‘species-focused’ conservation programmes. This data gap and the need for further ecological and taxonomic research is reaching crisis point as the risk of site and regional species extinction mounts in the face of accelerating habitat destruction and uncontrolled harvest and trade impacts. The introduction to the problem is followed by four detailed appendices of the fish species, the reptiles, the birds, and the mammals to be found on site.
Are countries delivering on transparency? Key takeaways from the first Biennial Transparency Reports to the UNFCCC
Key messages
- The Paris Agreement requires Parties to submit Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals. The first set of these reports was due by December 2024, however, as of February 2025, only 105 Parties had made their submissions—78 when counting the 27 countries of the European Union as a single Party—, while 90 submissions remained pending. Early submission was strongly correlated with country income level.
- This review applies a tailored screening and scoring framework to assess transparency in these first BTRs, focusing on two main dimensions – data and governance. The accuracy of data reporting was generally high– yet information on the Governance dimension in the reports remained limited referring to transparency, consistency, and comparability.
- To improve transparency in future BTRs, recommendations for data reporting include enhancing the quality of input data; adopting more advanced estimation methods and uncertainty analysis; improving inventory completeness across time series, emission categories and gases; and reducing the developing countries’ reliance on flexibility allowances in the reporting.
- Similarly, future governance reporting can be strengthened through standardized structured questionnaires or detailed checklists; better integration of institutional and stakeholder information; and greater recognition of non-state actor contributions.
- These improvements will require increased international cooperation, financial and technical support, and sustained capacity-building, particularly for developing country Parties.