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“Science-Policy Interactions - Making Science Work for Policy and Management”

IUFRO-CIFOR Training Workshop - Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, 6-8 September, 2017

Download theWorkshop Report(including results of the workshop)


Introduction

In collaboration with CIFOR and the Ethiopian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change IUFRO is a partner in a project on Ethiopia’s highly fragmented landscape with a focus on the forest-farm interface and its role in the sustainable management of forests. This project – titled Engaging the Forest-Farm Interface: Improving Livelihood and Environmental Outcomes in Ethiopia’s Mosaic Landscapes – is to seek evidence of the importance of this interface, based on the perceptions of key stakeholders regarding changes over time, the major drivers and impacts of those changes on livelihoods (particularly of women and poor segments of the community) and forests.

The workshop was held within the framework of the implementation of this project emphasizing the communication of science and its results to a broader audience, with a view to bridging any gaps between research results and their application in national policies, strategies and forest management activities, which could potentially reduce the project’s impact on the sustainability of the forests and the livelihoods depending on them.


Objectives

This workshop hosted 20 scientists from the Ethiopian Environment and Forestry Research Institute, the Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources and the National Office of CIFOR and discussed ways and means of transforming scientific knowledge into useful information for policy and management decisions on the ground. More specifically, the workshop aimed at the following specific objectives:

  • Providing concepts and methods to researchers and practitioners on how research results can be transformed into usable information for problem-solving and policy-making;
  • Improving the understanding of policy- and decision making and the roles scientists can play in informing such processes;
  • Explaining key aspects of science-policy interaction and best practices for work at the science-policy interface with special emphasis on the incorporation of relevant knowledge needed at the forest-farm interface;
  • Presenting a wide range of case studies related to community forestry, forest restoration and trees on farms from around the world; and
  • Conducting hands-on exercises in working groups on issues of immediate concern for work at the forest-farm interface in Ethiopia with focus on the transformation of scientific information for use in policy and on-the-ground forest management.