This division examines the role of forests in providing vital ecosystem services, such as water cycling, carbon storage, and environmental resilience. A key focus is understanding how forest ecosystems contribute to environmental stability, and developing restoration methods based on native species and landscape ecology approaches. Socio-economic research is also central to its work, including evaluating how restoration affects the well-being of surrounding communities. The division will also design ecosystem service-based management models for use in forestry policy, and evaluate how well different incentive schemes strengthen forest restoration and conservation.

This division develops and promotes sustainable forest management practices that balance ecological and economic considerations. Its core work includes analyzing policy and practice in production forest management to improve the sustainability of the forestry sector. The division will also develop agroforestry models suited to local ecological and social conditions, and evaluate how social forestry programs support community well-being and forest conservation. Forest certification and the use of digital technology for data-driven forest governance are further priorities.

This division analyzes the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems and develops ecosystem-based mitigation and adaptation strategies. Its research covers land cover change and its effects on carbon stocks and hydrology, as well as the resilience of forest ecosystems to climate change and extreme events such as fires, droughts, and floods. The division will also evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation schemes, including REDD+, in reducing forestry sector emissions. It will develop ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to strengthen forest landscape resilience, and examine how climate mitigation strategies can be built into forestry policy and regional development planning.