Message from the Chair
The future for agroforestry has never been brighter. Growing trees in agricultural landscapes can help
to improve food security, tackle environmental
degradation, provide a source of cheap soil fertility
and sequester carbon. In short, agroforestry has an
important role to play in tackling some of the great
challenges we face, from rising oil prices to the
latest food crises and climate change. This makes
the work of the World Agroforestry Centre more
relevant than ever before.
In terms of the Centre's institutional health, 2010
was an exceptionally good year. The Centre's
liquidity was further strengthened, and our
ability to weather future financial uncertainty
was substantially improved. In terms of all of the
key financial indicators that are tracked by the
CGIAR, our situation is among the strongest in
the Consortium.This is not to deny that there is
still considerable uncertainty about the future
financing of our operations. On one hand, sluggish
economic growth during the past year has caused donors to be hesitant in their commitments. On the
other, it remains unclear how the CGIAR Research
Programmes (CRPs) – these are at the heart of a
new business model adopted by CGIAR – will be
funded. The Centre is participating in seven out of
fifteen of them.
In April 2011, the Board of Trustees appointed a
new Director General to replace Dennis Garrity. The
week-long process was thorough and democratic
with prospective candidates, chosen from over 300
applicants, making their case not just to the Board
but to focus groups of staff.
I would like to express the Board's deep gratitude
to Dennis, who has been an outstanding director
general. When he assumed the position, 10 years
ago, he was given the thankless task of shedding
some 20 scientific positions. In contrast, the new
Director General is taking over an institution which
is expanding its scientific staff and global research
activities. Much of the credit for this must go to Dennis, who is brilliant at mobilizing resources as
well as a fine leader of research.
There is not enough space here to list all his
achievements, but among those which immediately
spring to mind are the following: he established
a vibrant new regional office for South Asia and
expanded our activities in Latin America; he
organized two highly successful world agroforestry
congresses in 2004 and 2009; and he helped to
develop a new strategy which created a system of
global research programmes that are now proving a
good fit for the CGIAR's new research structure.
Dennis will be remembered as the father of
Evergreen Agriculture, a system of tree-based land
use that he has promoted tirelessly during recent
years. In recognition of its importance, the Board
has awarded Dennis a 15-month sabbatical to
continue researching and promoting this important
form of agroforestry.
We have every confidence that his successor,
Tony Simons, will rise to the many challenges the
World Agroforestry Centre will face over the coming
years. An outstanding scientist, and someone
familiar with the culture and ethos of the Centre,
his appointment has been widely welcomed both
within and beyond our walls. It is now up to him to
appoint a new senior leadership team, including
a new Deputy Director General of Research and
Director of Administration, appointments which the
Board will need to approve. During the past year,
three of the four Africa-based CGIAR centres have
appointed new Directors General, and this opens
the opportunity for renewed and better collaboration
in the future.
Eric Tollens
Chair of the Board of Trustees |
