UNDP The United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the world's largest multilateral source of grant funding for development cooperation. Funds come from the voluntary contributions of Member States of the United Nations and its affiliated agencies, which provide approximately US$1 billion yearly to UNDP's central resources. The site provides a comprehensive guide to the fields of development and development research supported by UNDP.
UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme was established as a programme of the United Nations General Assembly as a result of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. It is headquartered in Nairobi and has regional offices and specialised units around the world. The site holds information on all UNEP programmes and conventions, which include CBD and CITES. There is also an online bookshop.
UNFF The United Nations Forum on Forests, originating from the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) and Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF). The site tracks the progress of UNFF meetings and agreements and holds a comprehensive list of forestry related organisations throughout the world.
FAO The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations was founded in October 1945 with a mandate to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity, and to better the condition of rural populations. Their large forestry site gives information on all of the programmes supported by the FAO, access to the online forestry journal Unasylva and databases on worldwide timber trade and non-timber forest products. The biennial State of the World's Forests, a complete guide to global forest cover and forest policy, is available for download in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Chinese.
CIFOR Centre for International Forestry Research
CIFOR's Mission is to contribute to the sustained well-being of people in developing countries, particularly in the tropics, through collaborative strategic and applied
research and related activities in forest systems and forestry, and by promoting the transfer of appropriate new technologies and the adoption of new methods of social organization, for national development. CIFOR is one of the CGIAR centres and has six major research programmes, described on the site. The site provides a wide selection of recent publications in download format, access to the TROPIS database on tree-growth and permanent plots in tropical forests, and CIFOR-developed software, such as FLORES (modelling of land-use changes at the forest frontier) and CIMAT (a tool for creating a site-specific set of criteria and indicators of forest management).
ITTO
The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) was created to provide an effective framework for consultation among producer and consumer member countries on all aspects of the world timber economy. ITTO is a major actor in international forest certification, having set the Year 2000 objective for sustainable timber extraction. Their site includes a manual of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management and posts up-to-date information on global timber prices and market trends.
ICRAF
The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, established in Nairobi in 1977, is an autonomous, non-profit research body supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.ITTO is a major actor in international forest certification, having set the Year 2000 objective for sustainable timber extraction. Their site includes a manual of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management and posts up-to-date information on global timber prices and market trends.The ICRAF site provides extensive information on agroforestry research and practice, including three specialised databases. The Agroforestree Database gives silvicultural details on a long list of agroforestry species, while the Tree Seed Suppliers and Botanical Nomenclature Database are self-explanatory.
World Bank
Founded in 1944, the World Bank today consists of five closely associated institutions. Through its loans, policy advice and technical assistance, the World Bank supports a broad range of programs aimed at reducing poverty and improving living standards in the developing world.The large World Bank site includes up-to-date economic data on almost every country in the world.
IUFRO
The International Union of Forestry Research Organizations is a non-profit, non-governmental international network of forest scientists. Its objectives are to promote international cooperation in forestry and forest products research. Their site includes some recent forestry research publications and the SilvaTerm database of forestry terminology.
WCFSD
The World Commission of Forest and Sustainable Development is an InterAction Council, grouping together some 30 former heads of Government and State, set up following the Earth Summit in 1992 to:
increase awareness of the dual function of world forests in preserving the natural environment and contributing to economic development;
Broaden the consensus on the data, science and policy aspects of forest conservation and management;
Build confidence between North and South on forest matters with emphasis on international co-operation.
The WCSFD site provides copies of their regional hearings, at which governmental and non-governmental representatives have debated the key issues of forestry in the 1990s.
Tropenbos
The Tropenbos Foundation was established in July 1988 in order to continue and expand the international Tropenbos Programme, which was set up by the Netherlands government in 1986. The main objectives of the Foundation are:
to contribute effectively to the conservation and wise use of tropical rain forests, by generating relevant knowledge, deepening insights and developing and testing methods for forest policy and management;
To involve local research institutions and to strengthen research capacity in tropical forest countries.
The site gives details of the Tropenbos Programme's research projects in the fields of non-timber forest products, biodiversity and criteria and indicators for forest management.
ETFRN
The European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETRFN) is a forum for communication between European organisations, researchers, EU institutions and others concerned with (sub-)tropical forest research. It manages an extensive database of research organisations and donors based in Europe, provides a question and answer service, and publishes regular newsletters.
