Although for several decades it has been acknowledged that forests — especially tropical ones — contain a significant share of global biodiversity, particular attention is now being drawn to their role in the provision of different ecosystem services, including climate services. The year 2008 saw a transition in the way in which IDDRI addresses the related issues.

Previously, IDDRI prioritised work on the role of private standards in forest management, in order to better understand how the emerging private standardisation and certification systems participate in the treatment of global sustainable development issues in a growing number of sectors (forestry of course, but also agriculture, fisheries, tourism, mining, etc.). This research, conducted in collaboration
with CIRA D, revealed the role played by States in disseminating forms of private governance (under the impetus given by international NGOs), along with the limited scope of these mechanisms due to the national reappropriation / reinterpretation of standards within the framework of national public policies.

While continuing to follow this research, now conducted mostly within CIRA D, IDDRI is currently focusing its attention on three issues:

• the impact on biodiversity preservation of the mechanisms for preventing deforestation
  negotiated under the Climate Convention;
• the economic analysis of the different ecosystem services provided by forests;
• issues relating to competition between agriculture and forests for land use at the global level.