livelihoods. Research themes Understanding the processes and effects of forest-related trade and investment Enhancing responses and policy options to mitigate the harm and enhance the benefits of trade and investment Other major projects Global Comparative Study on REDD+ Over four years, CIFOR and its partner organisations are undertaking a major global comparative study on the implementation of pilot REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) projects. The aim of the study is to compare how pilot REDD+ projects are working at national and subnational levels, and share lessons learned from these comparisons for the benefit of everyone involved in designing and implementing REDD+ projects. Essentially, by providing policy makers and communities with this information, the project aims to ensure implementation of REDD+ is as effective, cost-efficient and equitable as possible — and ultimately reduces carbon emissions, deforestation and forest degradation across the world, while producing benefits like poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Research for the global comparative study is being undertaken in 11 countries — Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Nepal, Peru, Tanzania and Vietnam. Poverty and Environment Network The Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) is an international research project and network launched by CIFOR in September 2004 and completed in 2010. PEN still exists as a database containing survey data on more than 8,000 households in more than 40 study sites in 25 developing countries. It was the largest and most comprehensive global analysis of tropical forests and poverty, and aimed to put a systematic framework of knowledge around the role tropical forests play in poverty alleviation. The project aimed to provide data on the ways that poor people depend on forest resources, in order to both inform mainstream forest policy design and to contribute to the design of policies and projects to alleviate poverty, and thereby contribute to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of 50% poverty reduction by 2015. In order for the socioeconomic data to be uniform and therefore comparable across countries and project sites, research partners (mainly PhD students) from a number of universities and research institutes collected quarterly data at the household and village level using standardised definitions, questionnaires and methods. The study sites were chosen to obtain representative coverage of geographical regions, forest types, forest tenure regimes, levels of poverty, infrastructure and market access, and population density. Preliminary results from the study’s global database showed that among those surveyed,