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  • Field Notes | Free lunch, in the shade of a marula tree

    01.30.12

    The marula tree dominates the rolling communal pastures and family courtyards in Bushbuckridge,  South Africa. In a landscape where most of the bush has long been cleared for timber, firewood or farmland, the survival of the marula tree is a function of its special status and multiple uses.

  • Knowledge | Implications of the Changes in Agro-food and Fuel Prices on Rural Livelihoods and Forests in Syria

    01.23.12

    In order to guide the World Bank and development partners' support to Syria’s natural resource management, PROFOR supported an activity that examined the implications of recent changes in international and local agro-food and fuel prices and the impact of climate change on farmers’ welfare. This activity was closed due to the political crisis in Syria.

  • Field Notes | A Perennial Perspective

    01.12.12

    Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre Tony Simons delivered a meaty, 102-slide presentation on "The Science Needs of Development: A perennial perspective" that gave rise to many questions. How do you nudge societies to adopt a tree planting culture? Why is the science of scaling up successful programs still so elusive? Can we emulate the health sector in this regard?

  • Knowledge | Using Forests to Enhance Resilience to Climate Change

    12.13.11

    Developing countries are expected to suffer the most from changes in climatic patterns.
    Forest and tree management could provide a low-cost approach to enhancing resilience of local landscapes to climate change but needs to balance production, livelihood, adaptation and mitigation goals.

  • News & Events | Dry Forests Symposium

    12.13.11

    This one-day symposium provided a global platform for representatives from the research and development sector to openly discuss the challenges and opportunities faced in the sustainable use of dry forests, within broader agricultural landscapes.

  • Field Notes | Notes from a muthi market

    12.02.11

    A few minutes’ drive from the COP 17 convention center, traders and healers are hard at work processing and selling bark, roots, tubers and animal parts endowed with medicinal and magic powers. The 50 or so stalls at the thriving outdoor market in Durban’s Victoria Street Market area, are a graphic reminder of the millions of people who depend on informal activities and “free” resources from dry forests and woodlands.

  • Field Notes | Voices from the Baka

    11.23.11

    Colleagues from the World Bank Africa region worked with IUCN to document what is happening to a corner of the vast tropical forest in Cameroon, seen from the perspective of the Baka people.  The 9-mn movie is embedded here.

  • Knowledge | Mobilizing Private Investment in Trees and Landscape Restoration in Africa

    11.16.11

    Despite the very considerable body of on-farm experience which has been gained in testing agroforestry and other tree-based technologies for their impact on increasing productivity and on rural income generation, investment in agroforestry, tree planting and landscape restoration has been lagging. This activity aimed to shed light on potential private investment opportunities and identify policy, regulatory and institutional constraints that could be lifted to help tap this potential.  

  • Field Notes | A Bleak Future for African Drylands?

    11.04.11

    A story by Michael McCarthy published in the Independent brings the relationship between poverty, population pressures, deforestation and land degradation into stark relief in Burkina Faso. The stakes of climate change in Africa's drylands will be one of the themes discussed at Forest Day 5 in Durban on December 4.

  • Knowledge | Lessons Learned from an Agro-Silvo-Pastoral Technology Transfer from Costa Rica to Cameroon

    10.18.11

    A World Bank-supported pilot project, launched in January 2011, has demonstrated that several agrosilvopastoral technology innovations and systems developed and/or tested in Central America can be adapted to the Tugi (Gutah) Hills in the North West Region of Cameroon, resulting in the rehabilitation of degraded pasture lands, improved livestock productivity, increased income of the rural communities and reduced risk and vulnerability to climate change. A new PROFOR activty aims to document and disseminate the lessons from that project.
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