Tropenbos International (TBI) is a non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

 (NGO) based in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It was established in 1986 in response to the concern about the disappearance and degradation of tropical rain forests worldwide. Part of its supposed mission was to mobilize the research capacity and knowledge of Dutch universities and it focused initially on the establishment of research programmes in a number of tropical forest countries. Now TBI run programmes in the Congo Basin (mainly Cameroon), Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Suriname.

By 2007 the organization operated in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

 and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 with so called "country programmes" and also in Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

, Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

 and Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

.

TBI projects are financed by the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

, Dutch government ministries, World Wildlife Fund etc., and include such themes as: environmental information, waste water treatment, water supply and purification, air pollution control, waste management, recycling soil preservation, noise protection, power generation, energy efficiency. For example, the annual budget for Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

projects is about 350,000 USD.

TBI's goal, by its own declaration, is to make sound and adequate information available to forest actors in the partner countries for use in formulating appropriate policies and managing tropical forest lands for conservation and sustainable development.

TBI's efforts are aimed to obtain five results:

• The information and knowledge needed for better decisions on forests is available (through research).
• National human capacity is sufficient to generate knowledge and to use it (through capacity building).
• National forest sector organizations are able to identify, manage and deploy relevant information (through institutional development).
• National information exchange mechanisms are operational (through multi-stakeholder dialogues and communication).
• National and international forest agendas are linked and support forest-based sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Tropenbos International hosts the Coordinating Unit of the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN).