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What is Agroforestry?

The Basics of agroforestry Agroforestry = Agriculture + Forestry What is Agroforestry? Agroforestry is the integration of wood perennials, such as trees and shrubs, with crops or livestock in farming systems. Agroforestry is fully inspired by nature. This inspiration is not related to the popular metaphor of “balance of nature”, but it refers to nature as a “dynamic system” that needs human action to maximize efforts to mitigate climate change and protect natural resources. In an agroforestry system, there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components leading to increased benefits for land users at all levels:…

The Basics of agroforestry

Agroforestry = Agriculture + Forestry

What is Agroforestry? Agroforestry is the integration of wood perennials, such as trees and shrubs, with crops or livestock in farming systems.

Agroforestry is fully inspired by nature. This inspiration is not related to the popular metaphor of “balance of nature”, but it refers to nature as a “dynamic system” that needs human action to maximize efforts to mitigate climate change and protect natural resources.

In an agroforestry system, there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components leading to increased benefits for land users at all levels: increased resilience and biodiversity on one hand, enhanced profitability and production on the other.

Agroforestry systems are in stark contrast to conventional and monoculture systems.

Conventional and monoculture systems are one of the main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG). Moreover, they trigger soil erosion, up to three billion tonnes each year.

Ecosystem goods and services

An “ecosystem” is a complex and dynamic combination of plants, animals, micro-organisms and the natural environment, existing together as a unit and depending on one another. Biodiversity comprises all the myriad living elements of these partnerships.

The Earth’s ecosystems provide humans with a wide range of benefits known as “ecosystem goods and services”.

Goods produced by ecosystems include food, water fuels and timber.

Ecosystem services include water supply and air purification, natural recycling of waste, soil formation, pollination and the regulatory mechanisms that nature uses to control climatic conditions and populations of animals, insects and other organisms.

Experts from the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), a UN-sponsored research project aimed at assessing:

  • the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being
  • the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being

MA identified four major categories of ecosystem services:

  • Provisioning services: when we are asked to think about a service provided by nature, most of us think of food. Provisioning services are tangible benefits we obtain from ecosystems and, along with food, they include goods such as drinking water, timber, natural gas
  • Regulating services: benefits provided by ecosystem processes that moderate natural phenomena such as pollination, decomposition, climate regulation, water purification
  • Cultural services: intangible benefits contributing to our spiritual welfare and cultural advancement
  • Supporting services: benefits that are less visible and harder to understand, but essential to our survival, such as photosynthesis, soil formation, nutrient cycling

Five basic types of agroforestry practices

Agroforestry can result in many different forms and this versatility is one of its great strengths. 

Agroforestry integrates trees to address a variety of conservation and production goals: different combinations depend on specific project objectives and contexts. 

The five most common categories of agroforestry practices are:

  • Windbreaks or shelterbelts: linear planting of trees and shrubs designed to provide social, economic and environmental benefits. Their primary purpose is to act as a barrier to slow the wind, but other purposes can be related to shades for livestock or recreational activities for local communities
  • Riparian forest buffers: a combination of perennial plants along lakes, rivers or wetlands primarily related to conservation goals. Benefits can also be directly connected to farming systems (e.g. they protect croplands and downstream communities from flooding)
  • Silvopasture systems: an intentional integration of trees and grazing livestock in the same piece of land. These systems need a huge number of management activities, but benefits are worthwhile: diversification of income streams, cooler environment in summer for livestock, carbon capture and storage, enhancement of biodiversity
  • Forest farming: intentional cultivation of plants beneath the forest cover. It is most often used to supplement family income because of the demand and the high value of plants cultivated by this approach: mushrooms, herbal and medicinal plants, decorative products
  • Alley cropping or intecropping: planting of high-value trees and shrubs growing with agricultural or horticultural crops in alternate rows. Growing a variety of crops in close proximity to each other can create significant benefits to producers, such as improved crop production and microclimate benefits