CIFOR-ICRAF research is intended to "deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises."

CIFOR's multidisciplinary approach considers the underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation, which often lie outside the forestry sector: forces such as agriculture, infrastructure development, trade and investment policies, and law enforcement.

In 1991, the CGIAR appointed the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) as the implementing agency responsible for establishing CIFOR and setting up a board of trustees.

Over time, CIFOR increased the focus of its research on forest policy rather than on technical forestry or tree breeding, in order to complement the efforts of national and private-sector institutes.

Instead of having laboratories, CIFOR would be a 'center without walls', marshaling interdisciplinary research teams in collaboration with partners to tackle forest policy changes.

CIFOR's first strategy, set out in 1996, provided the foundations and direction for research that affected the understanding and practice of forest management throughout the tropics.

Research themes Component 4 focuses on the needs of policymakers and land managers seeking to build forests, trees and agroforestry into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Research themes Source:[7] Over four years, CIFOR and its partner organisations are undertaking a major global comparative study on the implementation of pilot REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) projects.

Essentially, by providing policy makers and communities with this information, the project aims to ensure implementation of REDD+ is as effective, cost-efficient and equitable as possible—and ultimately reduces carbon emissions, deforestation and forest degradation across the world, while producing benefits like poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation.

[8][9] Research for the global comparative study is being undertaken in 11 countries—Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Nepal, Peru, Tanzania and Vietnam.

Sections of the blog include: climate change and energy, human wellbeing, forest management and restoration, food and diets, gender, justice and tenure, value chains and finance, landscapes and the Director General's column.

There were special learning events with leading global experts on the Green Economy, the Southeast Asian haze crisis, climate change negotiations and the Sustainable Development Goals.

More than 1,100 people from 82 countries, including 214 official climate-change negotiators and 65 media representatives, attended Forest Day 5 on 4 December 2011 in Durban, South Africa.

The President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, opened the conference and vowed to dedicate the last three years of his administration to safeguarding his nation's rainforests.