The mission of the Special Programme for Development of Capacities (in short IUFRO-SPDC,formerly "Special Programme for Developing Countries) is "to expand and foster forest research capacity in economically disadvantaged countries".

According to the programme's strategy the IUFRO-SPDC activities cover the following five priority areas:

• Enhancing core scientific competence;
• Improving information management and dissemination;
• Enhancing science contribution to policy processes;
• Promoting communication and multi-stakeholder learning processes,
• Providing institutional support to regional forest research networks.