Scanning agroforestry-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Europe

Agroforestry, the integration of trees and shrubs with livestock and/or crops, can make a substantial contribution to mitigating and enabling adaptation to climate change. However, its full potential will only be achieved if the challenges to agroforestry implementation are identified and the most efficient and sustainable solutions are made widely known. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore these challenges and to determine the most suitable set of solutions for each challenge that combines local effectiveness with European scale relevance. We performed a two-step “solution scanning” exercise. First, the main challenges to sustainable agroforestry in Europe were identified through 42 participatory workshops with 665 local stakeholders. The solutions to each challenge were scanned and classified into either direct solutions (28) to address climate change or indirect solutions (32) that improve the sustainability of agroforestry. In a second step, the direct solutions were prioritized through expert consultation in terms of their potential benefits for mitigation and adaptation. The most commonly reported barriers were a lack of knowledge and reliable financial support to which the most widely suggested indirect solutions were agroforestry training programmes and the development of safe economic routes. The direct solutions considered as holding the greatest mitigation and adaptation potential were the adoption of practices capable to increase soil organic carbon pools and the implementation of multifunctional hedgerows and windbreaks respectively. Our solution scanning approach can inform the implementation of the European climate strategy in general and to the Common Agricultural Policy in particular by pointing to concrete climate beneficial actions

Archimedes Interdisciplinary Research Programme Forges a Broad Spectrum of Academic Innovations

The basic goal of Archimedes III is to support research teams in Greek Technological Educational Institutes (TEI) and enhance their research capabilities by funding interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research. The programme aims also at attracting talented researchers and developing high quality research personnel. The TEIs, prior to their advancement to the tertiary sector in 2000, focused only on educational activities. Since then, development of research became part of their mission. In order for the Ministry of Education to support TEIsto develop their research capabilities, it designed research programmes targeting exclusively these organisations. Archimedes I and II were designed and ran in the previous programming period (2000-2006) while Archimedes III has been designed in the framework of the Operational Programme "Education and lifelong learning” of the current programming period, 2007-2013. The programme supports research projects in all research fields. However, particular emphasis is given to the fields of engineering and ICT where the main strengths of Greek Technological Educational Institutes are concentrated. The specific project of the TEI of Central Greece, described herewith, comprises 8 research subprojects in fields such as health, environment, energy and ICT with one additional subproject dedicated to management and dissemination. This paper is a comprehensive account of the research objectives and accomplishments of the research project as a whole. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

How local stakeholders perceive agroforestry systems: an Italian perspective

This paper reports the results of a study conducted in Italy, within the AGFORWARD (2014–2017) project, aimed at promoting innovative agroforestry practices in Europe. Agroforestry offers a means for maintaining food production whilst addressing some of the negative environmental effects of intensive agriculture. This study aims to elicit the positive and negative points of view and perceptions of local stakeholders in Italy in relation to three types of agroforestry systems. The Participatory Research and Network Development was implemented in three workshops conducted in Sardinia, Umbria, and Veneto regions, and applied adopting a common methodological protocol. Qualitative data were obtained using open discussions with stakeholders on key issues, challenges and innovations. Quantitative data were obtained from stakeholders completing questionnaires during the workshops. A statistical analysis was applied to elicit the differences in stakeholders’ positive and negative perceptions in relation to production, management, environment and socio-economy aspects. Although the participants in the study came from different geographical and socioeconomic contexts with varied educational and cultural backgrounds, the different professional groups (farmers, policy-makers and researchers) and the three workshops generally shared similar perceptions of the benefits and constraints. The effects of agroforestry on production and the environment were generally perceived as positive, whilst those related to management were generally negative. The process of bringing the groups together seemed to be an effective means for identifying the key research gaps that need to be addressed in order to promote the uptake and maintenance of agroforestry

Silvopasture policy promotion in European Mediterranean areas

Silvopasture is the deliberate integration of a woody component with grazed pastures as understorey. It is one of the most extended agroforestry practices all over the world. Silvopasture use is key to increase the sustainability of livestock farming systems as silvopasture reduces the use of concentrates since the woody component provides feed for animals. However, it is not an extensively used practice in Europe. This paper aims at evaluating, from Eurostat, LUCAS database and the 118 rural development programs, the current situation of permanent grasslands in the Mediterranean area of Europe as well as the rural development programmes fostering silvopasture to better understand how sustainable land use systems are promoted and provide insights to foster silvopasture across Europe. The results of this study show that most of the policy measures related to silvopasture are adapted to the local necessity. The already existing agroforestry managed land (dehesas/montado) are related to measures supporting regeneration and maintenance while in those areas where agroforestry does not exist the measures are related to forest fire prevention.MRML was supported by the European Commission through the AFINET (grant agreement no 727872) and the Go-Grass projects (grant agreement no 862674) from the European Union´s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme (https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/ en) and the Open2preserve project (SOE2/P5/E0804) from the Interreg Sudoe Programme (https://interreg-sudoe.eu/gbr/home). ARR was supported by the Xunta de Galicia, Consellerı´a de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional (https://www.edu.xunta.gal/portal/es) through the Consolidation funds 2019–2022. NFD was also supported by the Xunta de Galicia, Consellerı´a de Educacio´n, Universidade e Formación Profesional (https://www.edu.xunta.gal/portal/es) (Programa de axudas a´ etapa posdoutoral modalide B DOG n˚ 213, 08/11/2019 p.48018, exp: ED481D 2019/009). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Creating agroforestry innovation and best practice leaflets

A key output of the EU FP7 project AGFORWARD was a series of 46 agroforestry innovation and 10 agroforestry best practice leaflets for European farmers and other stakeholders. This paper describes the process of over 80 people working together to create the leaflets and the overall result

Farmers' reasoning behind the uptake of agroforestry practices: evidence from multiple case-studies across Europe

Potential benefits and costs of agroforestry practices have been analysed by experts, but few studies have captured farmers’ perspectives on why agroforestry might be adopted on a European scale. This study provides answers to this question, through an analysis of 183 farmer interviews in 14 case study systems in eight European countries. The study systems included high natural and cultural value agroforestry systems, silvoarable systems, high value tree systems, and silvopasture systems, as well as systems where no agroforestry practices were occurring. A mixed method approach combining quantitative and qualitative approaches was taken throughout the interviews. Narrative thematic data analysis was performed. Data collection proceeded until no new themes emerged. Within a given case study, i.e. the different systems in different European regions, this sampling was performed both for farmers who practice agroforestry and farmers who did not. Results point to a great diversity of agroforestry practices, although many of the farmers are not aware of the term or concept of agroforestry, despite implementing the practice in their own farms. While only a few farmers mentioned eligibility for direct payments in the CAP as the main reason to remove trees from their land, to avoid the reduction of the funded area, the tradition in the family or the region, learning from others, and increasing the diversification of products play the most important role in adopting or not agroforestry systems

Agroforestry in Europe. Practice, research and policy

Agroforestry in Europe: Practice, Research and Policy Content 1. The practice of agroforestry in Europe 2.Some research from the AGFORWARD project 3.Some important policy issuesN/

Current extent and stratification of agroforestry in the European Union

An accurate and objective estimate on the extent of agroforestry in Europe is critical for the development of supporting policies. For this reason, a more harmonised and uniform Pan-European estimate is needed. The aim of this study was to quantify and map the distribution of agroforestry in the European Union. We classified agroforestry into three main types of agroforestry systems: arable agroforestry, livestock agroforestry and high value tree agroforestry. These three classes are partly overlapping as high value tree agroforestry can be part of either arable or livestock agroforestry. Agroforestry areas were mapped using LUCAS Land Use and Land Cover data (Eurostat, 2015). By identifying certain combinations of primary and secondary land cover and/or land management it was possible to identify agroforestry points and stratify them in the three different systems. According to our estimate using the LUCAS database the total area under agroforestry in the EU 27 is about 15.4 million ha which is equivalent to about 3.6% of the territorial area and 8.8% of the utilised agricultural area. Of our three studied systems, livestock agroforestry covers about 15.1 million ha which is by far the largest area. High value tree agroforestry and arable agroforestry cover 1.1 and 0.3 million ha respectively. Spain (5.6 million ha), France (1.6 million ha), Greece (1.6 million ha), Italy (1.4 million ha), Portugal (1.2 million ha), Romania (0.9 million ha) and Bulgaria (0.9 million ha) have the largest absolute area of agroforestry. However the extent of agroforestry, expressed as a proportion of the utilised agricultural area (UAA), is greatest in countries like Cyprus (40% of UAA), Portugal (32% of UAA) and Greece (31% of UAA). A cluster analysis revealed that a high abundance of agroforestry areas can be found in the south-west quadrat of the Iberian Peninsula, the south of France, Sardinia, south and central Italy, central and north-east Greece, south and central Bulgaria, and central Romania. Since the data were collected and analysed in a uniform manner it is now possible to make comparisons between countries and identify regions in Europe where agroforestry is already widely practiced and areas where there are opportunities for practicing agroforestry on a larger area and introducing novel practices. In addition, with this method it is possible to make more precise estimates on the extent of agroforestry in Europe and changes over time. Because agroforestry covers a considerable part of the agricultural land in the EU, it is crucial that it gets a more prominent and clearer place in EU statistical reporting in order to provide decision makers with more reliable information on the extent and nature of agroforestry. Reliable information, in turn, should help to guide policy development and implementation, and the evaluation of the impact of agricultural and other policies on agroforestry