Population growth and development are placing unprecedented stresses on forests, agricultural land, and watersheds worldwide. Humans rely on these ecosystems for food, fuel, and other social and cultural benefits. But in many regions we are extracting resources more quickly than natural systems can recover. Wealthy and developing countries have different incentives for managing these resources, which makes it challenging to develop common international standards for conserving lands and forests. Energy shortages are creating new controversies over using crops and forest products as inputs for fuels.
CIERP’s Agriculture, Forests, and Biodiversity (AFB) Program works to redefine sustainable development and natural resource management of terrestrial renewable biological resources. Resources are only renewable if their rate of extraction does not exceed their rate of production from natural ecosystem processes. We are particularly focused on global forest policies, including international negotiations over forest management standards and financing. CIERP is also assessing sustainable agricultural practices and analyzing issues arising from the increased use of biofuel crops and forest products as energy sources.
Strategic Collaborations:
Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I)
Wageningen University & Research Centre, the Netherlands
Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University