CGIAR Fund Council Chair Speaks at Forest Day
On the sidelines of the UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, Fund Council Chair Rachel Kyte spoke at the 5th annual Forest Day on December 4 to help launch the new CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
 Rachel Kyte, CGIAR Fund Council Chair, speaks at Durban. Photo courtesy of CIFOR. |
“With this new research program we can create powerful collaborations to make a major contribution toward greater food security and climate stability,” Kyte said. “We must be ambitious and drive innovation, adopt new methods, form new partnerships, and create more capacity if we are to close the time gap between research discoveries and their impact in real-world settings,” she added. |
The new 10-year research program aims to reinvigorate efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and expand the use of trees on farms. The initiative is focused on the critical importance of forests as natural “carbon sinks” that can help slow the pace of climate change and the need to conserve biodiversity.