Monitoring impact

Traditionally research organisations like CIFOR and other CGIAR centers focused heavily on research and publishing. Implementation and impact were the domain of downstream partners. No longer.

For the past five years, CIFOR has explicitly and deliberately moved away from this model, with researchers now actively seeking to have impact on policy and practice. CIFOR’s work in 2015 demonstrates the success of this approach. From influencing forest regulations in Peru, to informing changes to PFES policy in Vietnam, CIFOR’s research is being used to inform forest and other land-related policy throughout the tropical world.

The change in emphasis from publications to policy impacts demands new ways of measuring success. The joint assessment of the Global Comparative Study on REDD+, undertaken with the Overseas Development Institute and Royal Roads University, exemplifies this new approach. Its tailor-made collaborative assessment methodology is a first in the CGIAR system, and has stimulated interest outside the research community, with organizations like IUCN now showing interest in using the same process.

CIFOR continues to provide key research findings to support evidence-based policy making, as well as tools and methodologies to assess, and thereby increase, the effectiveness and impact of its research.

INCAS: Indonesia’s new carbon tracking system

CIFOR worked closely with technical staff from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry to develop and pilot an MRV framework for the land use sector, including REDD+ activities. The framework was endorsed in 2015 as the Indonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS), which was used to generate national results of net GHG emissions estimates for reporting to the UNFCCC at COP 21 in Paris.

 

Read about more outcomes and impacts at CIFOR.

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