The Africa Forests Research Initiative on Conservation and Development (AFRICAD) is a conservation-oriented research initiative located within the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. Our goal is to work in Africa’s forested regions to pursue conservation–based approaches that address poverty alleviation and local livelihoods in areas of significant biodiversity value. We seek to identify and implement long-term, sustainable solutions that can enable successful conservation and development outcomes. We work in partnership with other research institutes, ENGOs, civil society, local communities, and/or local governments already active on the ground.

The AFRICAD team draws upon a wide set of expertise from our work involving effectiveness evaluations, alternative tenure and business models, criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, parks and protected areas assessments, forest certification, sustainable business management, decentralization and co-management, environmental and social impact assessments, life cycle assessment, and environmental compliance auditing. While we have worked in countries all over the world, AFRICAD was borne out of our collective research and travel experiences in the following African countries: Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Mozambique.