Suchergebnisse

Agroforestry (AF) is the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal systems to benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions. The appropriate application of AF practices is a key avenue to help the European Union to achieve more sustainable methods of food production. However, there is a lack of agroforestry knowledge among end-users. The project AFINET (AgroForestry Innovation NETworks) is a thematic network to foster knowledge exchange between scientists and practitioners on agroforestry. During the initial stage of the project, an assessment of positive (benefits) and negative aspects (limitations) on the implementation of AF systems was conducted among AFINET stakeholders in Galicia (north-west Spain). The reduction of fire risk, the enhancement of biodiversity and the improvement of landscape aesthetics values were perceived as the main benefits of implementing agroforestry by the stakeholders. On the other hand, the possibility of obtaining grants to establish AF systems was perceived as less important. When asked about the limitations, a lack of knowledge and professional advice were identified as the main barriers for the implementation of AF systems in the region, along with the risk of incompatibilities with the common agricultural policy (CAP).

Agroforestry is one of the most prominent tools to make easy the transition of European agricultural and forestry farms to more sustainable land use systems such as agroforestry. The extent of agroforestry in Europe is 19.5 million of hectares, of which 85% is allocated to silvopastoralism mainly associated to European Southern countries but also present in some Eastern countries. Silvopasture is associated to the improvement of livestock farming systems providing feed in a more sustainable way while increasing the multiple ouputs production from the same unit of land, therefore improving rural development. The current share of silvopastoralism in the EU is the 10% of the permanent grasslands which shows the huge potential that this land use has. The second most important agroforestry systems are the homegardens which represents the 8.3% of agroforestry lands and occupy around 8.65% of the land allocated to homegardens. Forest farming is not inventoried at all, while silvoarable only occupies almost half a million hectares and less than 1% of the arable land. Europe fosters agroforestry mostly through the Rural Development programs with more than 383 and 467 measures fostering agroforestry in one way or another in the previous CAP (2007-2013) and current CAP (2014-2020). Future measures should be fostered through the CAP Strategic plans developed at country level