The VERIFOR Team

Key contacts

• David Brown (ODI) - Project Leader
• Guillermo Navarro (CATIE) - Focal Point, Central America)
• Hans Thiel - Focal Point, South America
• Tim Fometé (CIFOR) - Focal Point, Africa
• Rob Oberndorf (RECOFTC) - Focal Point, Asia
• Francesca Iannini (ODI)- Project Administrator

VERIFOR is composed of four major partner organisations - the ODI is the lead institution internationally, CATIE in South America, RECOFTC in Asia and CIFOR in Africa.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is Britain's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Our researchers, policy groups and advisers address a wide range of issues for the developing world, including international finance, rural development, poverty and public policy, and humanitarian affairs.

The Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), based in Costa Rica, is a training and research institution with a long history of involvement in the forest sector in Central and South America. It has supported research and development of sustainable forest management systems and has been involved in the facilitation of political dialogue between stakeholders and governments.

The Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) is a research and training organisation, working in Asia and the Pacific. It has a long record of promoting dialogue between multi-stakeholders to ensure improved governance and equitable management of forest resources. Based on this long experience (developed in its core countries of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Nepal and Thailand) RECOFTC has a well-developed capacity to act as an intermediary to enrich country learning with innovative solutions, facilitate learning among a diversity of actors, and link national and regional learning processes.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is an international research and global knowledge institution committed to conserving forests and improving the livelihoods of people in the tropics. Among its many significant research achievements, CIFOR has recently completed an important set of case studies on the relationships between forest law enforcement and rural livelihoods. This global project included case studies of Bolivia, Cameroon, Canada, Indonesia, Honduras and Nicaragua as well as thematic overview and synthesis papers.