European agriculture, trade and energy policies greatly impact the Global South. While European governments may have offices in those countries, they lack CIFOR-ICRAF’s broad experience with farming and forest communities on the ground, as well as its long history of policy support to governments.
CIFOR-ICRAF is well-placed to play a critical bridging role between Europe and the Global South. By linking European decision makers with the knowledge and expertise accumulated by our project portfolios and partnerships in Asia, Latin America and Africa, we promote social cohesion, collective action, and the participation of youth organizations.
About our work in Europe
In 2023 we launched a Europe Directorate in Bonn, Germany, as the hub for our Europe-based researchers. This directorate leverages our global partners and knowledge to help solve problems in Europe – promoting knowledge exchange, sharing expertise, and acting in an advisory capacity.
The Directorate is also home to the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) – the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable and inclusive landscapes. GLF’s powerful platform with 33 charter members is well recognized and utilized by the governments of Luxembourg and Germany to support their ambitions.
Our work
CIFOR-ICRAF’s activities explicitly consider the different political entities in the region: the national governments of the 27 EU Member States and EU-associated countries, as well as the European Commission with its different departments.
We work through three main thematic areas to solve European problems:
Policies and programmes
- working with commodity-producing countries and people to mitigate negative effects emerging from European policies, development programmes designed in Europe and the business practices and operational setups of European companies.
- building understanding and maximizing the positive effects of current European policies on Global South countries.
- supporting private sector entities to develop approaches that help them respond to European ESG standards, specifically regarding transitions towards deforestation-free value chains and regenerative agriculture.
Direct technical intervention
- bridging farmer-researcher divides, supported by our deep expertise and experience in developing agroforestry technologies and mechanisms.
- applying our Options by Context approach, recognizing diversity, and choosing components (e.g. tree species) to meet specific conditions.
- ensuring researchers, farmers, and activists working closely together; supporting farmers to learn; and embedding research in an action framework.
Knowledge management
- leveraging the GLF to focus on youth as agents of change, strengthening our proximity to and existing partnerships with universities in Europe to establish applied research networks and programmes.
- connecting users with the GLF Youth in Landscapes initiative’s more than 60,000 young people, as well as GLF’s Landscapes Academy to access and develop learning programmes and courses.
