An estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide depend in various ways and to different degrees on forests, trees and agroforestry for their livelihoods. Forests, trees and agroforestry have the potential to address many sustainable development challenges. Achieving this potential, providing appropriate solutions and leveraging opportunities requires understanding the complex roles of gender and other factors of social differentiation, such as age, in shaping livelihood and resource management decisions, governance, and the distribution of benefits from tree-based systems. This is why gender and social analyses are embedded into each domain of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA).