ForLives: Forests and Livelihoods for Sustainable Development

ForLives is an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral research excellence cluster based at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. We are well positioned within UBC, with twenty carefully-selected faculty experts working on forests and livelihoods across four faculties.

Forests are central to resolving some of the most challenging global goals and wicked problems of the next half century. We aim to advance an understanding about the contribution of forests to the new sustainable development and climate change agendas (e.g., Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Paris Agreement). We envision a world where local, forest-led sustainable development drives human prosperity in a manner which sustains and protects one of the world’s most important resources – forests – in perpetuity.

We work broadly on all of the SDGs as they link to forests, including poverty, health, economic development, gender, education, climate change, energy, land degradation, and conflict. ForLives’ experts specialize in: resource governance; Indigenous rights; natural resource conflicts; alternative forest tenure and business models; forests for food and nutrition security; environmental finance; forest landscape restoration (FLR); payments for ecosystem services (PES); rural livelihoods; zero deforestation policies; and impact evaluation.

We are always seeking to develop good partnerships. Contact us to discuss opportunities to co-conceive grant proposals with us on a range of topics or commission us to provide a range of research, policy and advisory services.