We were very pleased to receive project funding from the Netherlands Development Cooperation at the end of October 2005. So that we were glad to be able to carry on with the research after a short hiatus. Members of the research team were able to participate in CoP11 (Montreal).
A mid-term project meeting was held in Mali March 1-4, hosted by the project partner there, Mali Folk Centre. All research teams were present at this meeting, which included a visit to the field sites where MFC is working. At the meeting a logframe was finalized and agreements reached about work to be completed in 2006. Guinea Bissau has entered the program this year. Data collection is now going on annually at around 25 different sites in six countries.
A proposal for the final 2 years of the project 2007 and 2008 was submitted to the sponsor in October 2006. All teams were present at CoP12 in Nairobi where the project had an exhibit and distributed a book of casestudies deriving from the first three years of research. This book was published by CIFOR and can be downloaded from this site (see publications page), together with other outputs of this year's work.
A project meeting was held from 10 - 13 November in which plans and a logframe for 2007 and 2008 were drawn up.
This year in addition to the fieldwork the project has contributed significantly to the ongoing policy debate on what is now called "Reduced emissions for Deforestation", and it has forged strong links with other groups working in this area including Joanneum Institute and the Katoomba Group.