Named Data Networking (NDN), an emerging communication model in the content centric networks, has recently presented a solid framework for the future Internet. The NDN exploits content name instead of host name (IP address) and content caching. These features make NDN particularly efficient in networks with intermittent connectivity and dynamic topologies such as mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Due to the structure of NDN nodes, design of forwarding strategies has a vital impact on the network performance. In this paper, we propose a new forwarding strategy: redundancy elimination forwarding (REF). In REF, the NDN node structure and the operation of the data structures are modified. These modifications improve network performance in terms of throughput, overhead and resource requirements. REF strategy is simulated in different scenarios based on ndnSIM and the results demonstrate that it provides robust performance for various environments.