RECOFTC
ข่าวสาร

Explore awards US$1.5 million in research grants to improve forest landscape governance in the Asia-Pacific region

Sida’s investment enables eight research teams from across Southeast Asia, including 60 female researchers, to expand and apply policy-relevant knowledge to benefit people and forests.

Explore’s Advisory Committee today announced the winners of its first research grants to improve forest landscape governance in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We are thrilled to announce the Explore research grants,” said David Ganz, executive director of RECOFTC and a member of Explore’s Advisory Committee. “These research projects will equip policymakers with knowledge and practical know-how on ways to stop rampant deforestation, mitigate and adapt to climate change, overcome poverty, and achieve gender equality and social inclusion.”

Launched in October 2020, Explore is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. It is the only research network in the world dedicated to forest landscape governance. 

Explore takes a multi-disciplinary, participatory, inclusive multi-stakeholder approach to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate change and other international and national commitments. It emphasizes gender equity and social inclusion. More than 50 percent of its advisory board members are women, and it seeks equal representation by female researchers. Explore also emphasizes transboundary collaboration and problem solving.

These research projects will equip policymakers with knowledge and practical know-how on ways to stop rampant deforestation, mitigate and adapt to climate change, overcome poverty, and achieve gender equality and social inclusion. – David Ganz, RECOFTC 

The Explore Advisory Committee announced the research grants after a year-long process that began with an open call for research concepts. After a selection process, Explore supported the development of 19 selected concepts into full research proposals. Explore provided mentoring and trained the research teams in Participatory Action Research methods, human rights based approaches, research approaches that foster gender equity and social inclusion, communication and policy advocacy. In July 2022, the Explore-funded teams submitted their full research proposals for review. The Explore Advisory Committee chose eight for immediate funding, and the average grant is US$200,000.

“The awards recognize the quality and hard work of the research teams, and the urgency of the proposed research,” said Kanokwan Manorom, chair of the Explore Advisory Committee. “The research teams behind the proposals that were not funded at this time are invited to further develop their proposals and to submit at the next opportunity.”

Winners of the 2022 Explore research grants are:

  • Fair for whom? Comparing politics, power and precarity in transformations of tropical forest-agriculture frontiers in Southeast Asia Indonesia and other countries
  • Towards the Resiliency of Selected Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes in Southeast Asia Indonesia, Philippines, and Viet Nam
  • Co-adaptive forest management through climate-smart technology and communal social capital Cambodia and Lao PDR
  • Understanding forest dependence in the time of COVID-19: a trans-boundary analysis using a multi-disciplinary approach Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam
  • Analysis of the Path Model of Forest-Water-Energy-Food Nexus and its drivers toward Sustainable Forest Landscape Management Indonesia and Timor Leste
  • Collaborative Forest Landscape Governance Towards a Resilient and Sustainable Future Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand
  • Centering Gender and Ecological Justice in Southeast Asian Forest Landscape Governance Indonesia and Lao PDR
  • Gender, Climate Change, and Forest Landscape Governance Lao PDR and Viet Nam

Explore is hosted by RECOFTC, in partnership with CIFOR-ICRAF, in collaboration with universities, research institutes, governments, civil society organizations, local communities, and the private sector in Southeast Asia.

For more information about Explore, contact explore.secretariat@recoftc.org.

To become a member of Explore, visit recoftc.com/projects/explore/about-explore.

###

Explore is a research network and community of practice dedicated to expanding and applying knowledge on forest landscape governance in Southeast Asia. The network is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. It is hosted by RECOFTC, in partnership with the CIFOR-ICRAF, in collaboration with universities, research institutes, governments, civil society organizations, local communities, and the private sector in Southeast Asia.

RECOFTC’s work is made possible with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).