ICRAF's mission is conduct innovative research and development in the fields of agroforestry and natural resources management. It works through strengthening the capacity of our partners, to enhance worldwide recognition of the human and environmental benefits of agroforestry, and to provide scientific leadership in the field of integrated natural resource management. We do this by combining research and science with farmer knowledge in a wide range of strategic alliances across a research to development continuum.

Spatial data, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) form an integral part of ICRAF research and development. The GIS UNIT based in Nairobi supports a variety of regional programmes and conducts cutting-edge research on environmental remote sensing, spectrometry, and land use change analysis. Some of the efforts that has been concluded include an Environmental Baseline Study of the Lake Victoria Basin, an Application of Geospatial Tools for LandUse Planning in Southwest Uganda, and an assessment of Tropical Wetlands in the Lake Victoria Basin under various conversion and use scenarios.

ICRAF is developing new technological and analytical approaches to large area assessment of land degradation and soil quality using a combination of remote sensing imagery, GIS, ground survey, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for rapid screening of soil condition. Techniques for 'spectral fingerprinting' of soils are being developed using the project's spectral library of about 5000 African soils, which is being extended to a global soil spectral library in collaboration with ISRIC. The new approaches are being applied in a long-term ecological monitoring study in the Lake Victoria Basin. ICRAF, under GIS Unit is also undertaking a new approach of creating 30-metres DEM of Southern Sudan from ASTER images, a program that would give a quick fix for DEM development as opposed to use of contour digitizing.

ICRAF implements programme activities in 20 countries in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa and has GIS facilities and users based in Mali, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Thailand. Researchers in ICRAF- Southeast Asia Program, in addition to a variety of GIS and Remote Sensing activities, including fire-mapping and biodiversity assessments, ICRAF-SEA has pioneered the use of GIS and spatial data to develop a Negotiation Support Systems approach to integrated watershed management. Addressing profound resource conflict issues associated with highland-lowland watershed linkages and cultural differences, this approach has provided a successful methodology allowing application of advanced geospatial tools within a participatory community level framework.