This discussion paper assesses the state of knowledge on tropical dry forests as it relates to CIFOR’s strategy and identifies research opportunities that align with CIFOR’s strategic goals. Over the past two decades, CIFOR has accumulated a substantial body of work on dry forests, with a particular focus on African dry forests. This paper is intended to build on that work, by gathering wider research from around the world, as CIFOR seeks to widen the geographic scope of its research on dry forests. The present assessment explores five themes: climate change mitigation and adaptation; food security and livelihoods; demand for energy; sustainable management of dry forests; and policies and institutional support for sustainable management. These themes emerged as priority areas during discussions on dry forest research priorities held at CIFOR’s Dry Forests Symposium in South Africa in 2011. Research on these themes should be considered a priority, given the importance of dry forests to people and ecosystems around the world and the threats posed to them.

Key messages Many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) retain a sectorial focus; however, emphasis is placed on the need for integration across goals and targets.Given that there are inherent synergies and trade-offs embedded throughout, applying sectorial approaches to achieving the SDGs will likely be ineffective.Integrated landscape approaches offer significant potential as an implementing framework for addressing interlinked and conflicting challenges.This brief identifies where the current set of goals would benefit from a landscape approach and to what degree, and presents key recommendations.

This review assesses the strength of the evidence that reports how forests and trees contribute to agricultural (food) production in order to prioritize further research for better decision-making. The search strategy employs terms from studies on forests, agroforestry, ecosystem services and agriculture across a range of bibliographic databases, internet and specialist search engines and an open call for gray literature. Retrieved articles will be screened by title, abstract and full text and inclusion/exclusion exercise will generate the final list of studies. Data from these studies will be extracted using a coding tool. Due to anticipated heterogeneity in the retrieved data, we will group findings into appropriate categories as an initial presentation of the data. Sub group meta-analysis by types of ecosystem services and other appropriate predictors will be conducted to show the positive or negative effects of forests and trees on food production. We consider there may be significant gaps in the literature with regard to: 1) Which ecosystem services are provided by forests and trees within a landscape; 2) Over what spatial scales are these services transferred, and; 3) To what extent are these services ultimately translated to increased food production?

After 42 years of international trade in wild harvested medicinal bark from Africa and Madagascar, the example of Prunus africana holds several lessons for both policy and practice in forestry, conservation and rural development. Due to recent CITES restrictions on P. africana exports from Burundi, Kenya and Madagascar, coupled with the lifting of the 2007 EU ban in 2011, Cameroon’s share of the global P. africana bark trade has risen from an average of 38% between 1995 and 2004, to 72.6% (658.6 (metric tons or t)) in 2012. Cameroon is therefore at the center of this international policy arena. First, despite the need to conserve genetically and chemically diverse P. africana, there are no populations in Cameroon that are completely protected. Commercial harvesting is allowed in Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP) and enforcement within forest reserves such as Nkom-Wum Forest Reserve, Mount Manengouba is limited. Second, hopes of decentralized governance of this forest product are misplaced due to elite capture, concentration of power and “informal taxation” (bribery). Although shifts away from an export monopoly did occur, this resulted in “resource mining” rather than the intended sustainable resource management after 1987, when 50 Cameroonian entrepreneurs entered the bark trade. In 2004, this halved to 25 companies. In 2007, just nine companies received quotas, only one of which (Afrimed) actually exported bark. Afrimed continues to dominate the export trade to date. As one of four companies under the umbrella of a privately owned Cameroonian bank, Afrimed is different to other exporters in terms of power and influence. At the current European price for P. africana bark (USD 6 per kg), the 2012 bark quota (658.675 t) was worth over USD 3.9 million, most of it accruing to Afrimed. Third, in contrast to lucrative bark exports, livelihood benefits to local harvesters from wild harvests are low. For example, the 48 harvesters working within MCNP receive less than USD 1 per day from bark harvests, due to a net bark price of just USD 0.33 per kg (or 43% of the farm-gate price for wild harvested bark). The costs of maintaining an inventory, monitoring and managing sustainable wild harvests are far greater than the benefits to harvesters. Without the current substantial international donor subsidies, sustainable harvest cannot be sustained. To supply the current and future market, we must develop separate, traceable P. africana bark supply chains based on cultivated stocks. More Cameroonian small-scale farmers cultivate P. africana than farmers in any other country. This change requires CITES and EU support and would catalyze P. africana cultivation in Cameroon, doubling farm-gate prices to harvesters – from the current FCFA 150 per kg (USD 0.33) received by wild bark harvesters to FCFA 294 per kg (USD 0.66 ) – that could be paid to farmers after a 15% traceability cost was deducted.

Zambia is one of the nine pilot countries for the UN-REDD programme and is currently at the first phase of readiness for REDD+ under the UN-REDD quick start initiative. A National Joint Programme (NJP) is tasked with developing a national REDD+ strategy. Outcome 5 of the NJP Programme Document is to strengthen the Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) capacity for REDD+ in Zambia. A reliable system of Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) is of critical importance to the effectiveness of REDD+.

Summary: Equine morbillivirus (EMV) emerged dramatically, in two unrelated outbreaks, resulting in the death of two humans and 16 horses. This virus represents a new member of the family paramyxoviridae, is different from any existing members and is classified as a biosecurity level 4 agent, as for the Ebola virus. The C protein, considered a non-structural protein, is translated from the P and V mRNAs in a separate overlapping reading frame. Observations of paramyxovirinae C proteins have been inconsistent, with no clear function for this protein being elucidated. This has necessitated the investigation of the EMV C protein. To achieve this the C gene was cloned from a total EMV cDNA library and expressed in bacteria, an insect cell line and a mammalian system. The recombinant protein was purified and used to raise hyper-immune sera in rabbits. The sera produced enabled us to demonstrate the presence of the C protein not only in EMV infected cell lysate, but also within purified virions. This study will aid in the reclassification of EMV and provide additional information regarding the role of the C protein.

The relationship between forests and human nutrition is not yet well understood. A better understanding of this relationship is vital at a time when the majority of new land for agriculture is being cleared from forests. We use Demographic Health Survey data on food consumption for children from 21 African countries and Global Land Cover Facility tree cover data to examine the relationship between tree cover and three key indicators of nutritional quality of children's diets: dietary diversity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and animal source food consumption. Our main findings can be summarized as follows: there is a statistically significant positive relationship between tree cover and dietary diversity; fruit and vegetable consumption increases with tree cover until a peak of 45% tree cover and then declines; and there is no relationship between animal source food consumption and tree cover. Overall our findings suggest that children in Africa who live in areas with more tree cover have more diverse and nutritious diets.