Our Mission and Vision
Vision Statement
Our goal is to engage with African communities and collaborate with partners to produce innovative research that promotes sustainable development and, informs policy and practice across Africa and beyond.
Mission Statement
To advance interdisciplinary and applied research across Africa’s forest sector through high‑impact, collaborative research with local communities and key stakeholders.
To generate practical solutions that strengthen resilience, drive sustainable development, and create meaningful impact at the local, regional, and global levels.
To support African communities in their effort to achieve sustainable community development.
Our Objectives:
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To facilitate knowledge exchange directly or indirectly through high-quality scientific research, evidence-based, and shared collaboration.
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To improve Africa's forest sustainability and encourage responsible consumption through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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To promote Africa's forest diversity through interdisciplinary research whilst highlighting its impacts and contributions to climate change.
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To bring together African researchers, academics, and the public in an engaging space aimed at generating solutions for the global challenges that we all face in today's rapidly changing environment.
CAFOREC, as a research institution, aims to advance high-quality, ethical, and forest- related research in Africa while actively engaging communities, policymakers and related industries to promote responsible consumption and long-term sustainability. Through our research inquiry and inclusive public engagement, the centre seeks to strengthen forest governance and stewardship across the continent. Hence, contributing directly to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and supporting Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework by helping to conserve and restore important biodiversity ecosystems in Africa.
Key to the research centre is the process of facilitating meaningful knowledge exchange by connecting African communities with partners in the Global North, including higher education institutions, to find solutions for biodiversity and forest sustainability. Thus, by actively engaging the public in our African forests research programmes, we cultivate a shared sense of responsibility, community engagement and collective action. This inclusive approach ensures that forest-dependent people benefit from our research insights, and use that to strengthen their livelihoods, wellbeing and environmental resilience. Also, through these efforts, CAFOREC makes a vital contribution to climate change mitigation, supports biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management, and most importantly, empowers the African communities to make informed and sustainable choices.
Our ability to engage and work collaboratively with different higher-learning institutions, NGOs, civil society organisations, and government agencies is central to CAFOREC's vision. Addressing the complexity of forest-related challenges that are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals demands collaboration and meaningful partnerships grounded in shared purpose, community engagement and inclusion. By doing so, we aim not only to enhance human wellbeing and climate change mitigation but to address the socio-economic, political, institutional and environmental pressures facing the African continent. In other words, by bringing diverse stakeholders together, CAFOREC fosters integrated solutions that are impact-driven, and which strengthen forest governance, support sustainable livelihoods, and contribute to global sustainability efforts.
Primary Interest:
To conduct interdisciplinary research that is impactful, participatory, ethical and policy oriented. This involves engaging in actions that protect, conserve, restore and manage forest ecosystems, as well as the sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources to address social, economic and environmental challenges that impact human wellbeing. The centre’s research program will be on forest management and restoration, biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, nature-based solutions, land use and land management, and sustainable development.
Secondary Interest:
Engaging and integrating Indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs) in actions such as sustainable community development, transformation and participatory research, citizen science, tree planting and nature restoration, sustainable forest management, participatory land use planning, community-based forest management, gender participation, capacity building and training, sustainable livelihoods, and the inclusion of local communities in decision-making that shape their needs and wellbeing.
