Agroforestry

Agroforestry, as a practice of integrating woody vegetation with crop and animal

 systems, benefits agriculture, forestry and related stakeholders with a 

sustainable land management, with multiple ecological and economic 

interactions. As such, agroforestry systems can be integrated with a set 

of practices to produce biological resources and sustainable methods of

 food, wood, and fiber production and provide a wide range of ecosystem

 services, such as carbon sequestration, water regulation and habitat

 provision for biodiversity and landscape amelioration. While, at local scale,

 it can benefit farmers, landowners and nature conservation efforts, at 

larger scale, it can help the European Union to accelerate the deployment 

of a sustainable European bioeconomy towards the 2030 Agenda and

 its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as objectives for 

the Paris Agreement. However, this requires research proposals and 

results tested with silvoarable and silvopastoral agroforestry systems

 designed mixed with agricultural and forestry practices to demonstrate

 their management, production and profitability. Such knowledge should

 then benefit and reach end-users to facilitate the correct implementation

 of optimal and beneficial practices within a European bioeconomy 

development context.

Agroforestry, ecosystem services, landscape and 

rural development

• Climate change (adaptation and mitigation)

Agroforestry is a diversified set of agricultural production systems that

 integrate trees in the agricultural landscape, which is often regarded as 

a strategy for both adaptation and mitigation to climate change. The

 inclusion of trees in agroforestry systems has a strong significance

 for carbon sequestration and therefore is an important and often 

underestimated contribution to climate change mitigation. Agroforestry

 can also support production in rural areas with improved resilience

 to climate variability as well as climate change, through intensification,

 diversification and buffering of farming systems. This session foresees 

positive outcomes of agroforestry from case studies or dynamic modelling

 on mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

• Enhancing ecosystem services provision by agroforestry systems

Agroforestry systems provide a broad number of regulating and

 supporting ecosystem services, ranging from biogeochemical cycling,

 through maintenance of soil fertility and carbon storage, to watershed

 protection and biodiversity. However, as emphasized by several researchers

, current understanding of agroforestry systems functioning and the best 

strategies to enhance the provision of multiple ecosystem services

 require deeper understanding. This session will examine the relationships 

between different ecosystem services as well as the management strategies 

to favor their provision in different agroforestry systems. Cases of Payment 

for Environmental Services (PES) would be encouraged.

• Agroforestry, biodiversity, and wildlife management

Among several ecosystem services, agroforestry increases biomass, habitat 

and landscape connectivity, with potential to maintain higher levels of 

biodiversity in comparison to crop or pasture systems. Thus, spreading 

of different agroforestry ecosystems may be a viable complementary land

 use strategy for biodiversity conservation through small and diversified

 farms. The session defines the relevance of agroforestry systems for

 biodiversity conservation and enhancement, with general discussions

 and specific outcomes from case studies on positive relationships 

between plant/tree diversity and biodiversity — driven by either niche 

complementarity or the greater likelihood of including functionally-important

 species in more diverse assemblages.

• Agroforestry and the landscape

This session focuses on options for a sustainable landscape development 

and management across spatial and temporal scales. It aims to highlight

 opportunities and synergies for: agricultural growth shaped through

 biodiversity and ecosystem conservation efforts; securing the full range

 of goods and services through natural resource management; providing

 new directions for meeting the production with sustainable development 

goals. Agroforestry systems and practices promise to play a major role 

in this framework. Session topics will include the analysis of agroforestry

 systems drivers, processes, and social-ecological impacts at landscape 

scales; the role of agroforestry in the landscape integrated management;

 the role in human health, limitations and knowledge gaps, as well as 

critical issues in local and regional planning through examples and case studies.

Agroforestry and policy for sustainable 

development

• Agroforestry, quality food products and certification

The inextricable linkages between water, food, and other resources are

 pivotal in a fast changing world, since their demand is increasingly driven

 by economic growth, rising population, urbanization, and climate change.

 Sustainable agroforestry practices are often considered as a way to enhance

 food security, taking into account the often neglected social issues. 

However, much research is still needed to assess how agroforestry can

 contribute to food security, especially in the face of socio-economic and 

climate changes. More knowledge is needed on the relationship between

 agroforestry practices and food quality, especially as regard to the presence 

of bioactive substances and the nutritional characteristics of food. 

Furthermore, a credible certification on sustainable products is expected

 through voluntary market tools to demonstrate organic or good agriculture 

practices for food and sustainability for forest-based products. This session 

invites studies reporting advances in understanding the potential of

 agroforestry to contribute to food quality, health and security, while

 preserving and strengthening the environmental resources, and supporting

 the development of innovative certification and labelling schemes for a

 profitable and sustainable agroforestry.

• Policy

A set of recommendations and changes of local, regional, national and 

international policies such as, the current and the next Common Agricultural 

Policy (CAP), are crucial to facilitate rural development. Farmers in the 

European Union receive support through several measures within the CAP

, including direct payments to farmers (Pillar I) and payments related to rural 

development (Pillar II). Policies should also recognize the importance of 

certification to grant an important role of agroforestry products to enhance

 sustainable production, and support local rural communities with activities

 fostering landscape preservation. This session aims to assess the existing

 policy framework, and highlight the required changes and adaptations that

 can facilitate widespread transition to eco-intensive farming (including 

agroforestry practices) and contribute to support bioeconomy.

Agroforestry systems and innovations

• Agroforestry and wildfire prevention

Fire frequency and fire-prone areas have increased in Southern Europe, especially

 in the Mediterranean Basin, because of recent changes in land use socio-economic 

and fire-policy factors, including increased wildland-rural-urban interface due

 to urban sprawl. Land abandonment, especially in mountainous regions, led to

 shrubland encroachment, thus, in turn, contributing to increase fuel loading and

 fire risk. Land management practices, particularly agroforestry, can

 contribute to reducing wildfire risk through the reduction of fuel

 loads/flammability and altering fuel continuity at the landscape level, while

 revitalising abandoned areas, integrating fire prevention principles, and

 offering new job possibilities. Contributions are welcome addressing the

 influence and the opportunity of agroforestry activities to better understand and

 manage wildfire risk, with an eye on sustainability and ecosystem service provision.

• Agroforestry innovations toward innovative agroforestry systems

To optimize a functional integration of multiple roles to support agroforestry, a

 fundamental understanding of agroforestry innovations is required in order to

 ensure long-term land-use decisions. As alternative solutions and agroforestry

 components are tested and combined, functionally and structurally, new

 agroforestry systems are potentially becoming available and brought under the

 attention as new solutions to exploit new complementarities of agroforestry

 components and marketing alternatives. The session describes knowledge and

 marketing of agroforestry innovations that are fundamental for the design of

 solutions that can improve intensification of agricultural production, enhance

 complementarity of multiple biotic factors, grow better food, cut waste and 

improve financial margins and profitability.

To this end, this session emphasizes innovative agroforestry systems, tested

 through scientific case study development and/or adoption by rural communities,

 and highlights their potential and weakness to become useful and

 widespread agroforestry options.

• Managing Mediterranean agro-silvopastoral systems

Traditional agroforestry systems are undergoing rapid transformation because 

of to socio-economic and climate changes. If properly designed and managed,

 agroforestry systems in Mediterranean areas can contribute to multiple goos

 and jobs related to agro-silvopastoral systems, including wood products, livestock

 husbandry, pastures and crops, while addressing climate-change adaptatin 

and mitigation issues. Yet, emerging research is moving fast from climate-smat

 agriculture to climate-smart agroforestry, providing studies and solutions 

for shifting towards management practices economically and environmentally

 sustainable. Abstracts in this session are expected to address sustainable 

economic and ecological management of agro-silvopastoral systems in a context

 of global change.

Agroforestry, education, dissemination

• Education, information sharing, and awareness raising in agroforestry

Education and dissemination are key elements to promote good practices

 that allow widespread implementation and adoption by farmers of successful 

agroforestry practices. Moreover, social engagement is an extremely important 

factor for the maintenance and success of agroforestry activities. This session

 will highlight the experiences and perceptions of European farmers, to identify

 the opportunities and the key barriers to agroforestry and, therefore, to 

understand the acceptance or refusal of agroforestry by farmers. This session

 will also show and describe potential practices that can help to disseminate,

 through improved solution/platform (ICT) providing farmers with information

 related to better agroforestry practices, such as crop/tree choice, spacing 

and market decisions. This includes experiences in developing an agroforestry

 system and describing voids to be filled when applying them, the description of

 need for technical assistance to small farmers, integrating research,

 experimentation and application. The session aims also at looking into initiatives

 that contribute to public awareness raising, as a crucial factor for increasing the 

demand of products obtained by agroforestry practices.

• Agroforestry and rural tourism

Agroforestry offers great potential to increase biodiversity, landscape values

 and several ecosystem functions that can facilitate the fruition of natural 

landscape by human activities. Agroforestry can have an important role in

 ecotourism development and in keeping the wildlife component of

 eco-destinations alive and active, by preserving food sources and even nesting 

sites, growing high value food for tourists, restoration of degraded landscapes 

aesthetically attractive for tourism. This session intends to describe opportunities

 through rural tourism to establish economic activities that can be a funnel to 

financially support  agroforestry practices, while benefiting landscape.