Context

In Europe, agroforestry represents a historical land use, developed and practised over centuries by smallholders needing multiple outputs from the same piece of land. The invention of mechanised, and later modern, agriculture, has rapidly eroded the patchwork of fields, tree rows, hedges, and farm woodlands scattered across the European landscape. We now know that the presence of trees within farming landscapes delivers many ecosystem services, the benefits of which have been lost due to the relentless drive for high-input conventional production to guarantee food security in Europe and the pursuit of economies of scale. 

The current shift towards improving the environmental sustainability of food production (e.g., the European Green Deal) and the international effort to mitigate environmental change have resulted in an increased emphasis on multi-objective farming. Farmers must farm for food, carbon and biodiversity - in the same space and often simultaneously. Agroforestry is uniquely suited to answer this challenge: we already have a strong evidence base of its ability to concurrently deliver multiple ecosystem services from a single plot of land - food production included. 

A single question then pushes to the fore – why is every farmer not practising it? This proposal focuses on finding solutions to overcome the main barriers to agroforestry expansion in Europe. We aim to foster innovative knowledge exchange and provide novel solutions to empower farmers in Europe and associated countries to deliver multiple objectives: food production, carbon capture, and biodiversity.

Objectives

REFOREST uses existing knowledge of temperate agroforestry systems to co-create solutions to key barriers that hinder wider adoption of agroforestry by farmers in the EU and associated countries. The strategic objective of ReForest is to enhance agroforestry and the sustainability of food production by internalising the value of carbon and biodiversity in agroforestry business models. The project uses an open science approach to represent the real-world ecological, economic and social potential and limitations of agroforestry within decision making, verification, and financial support tools.

Activities

The ReForest project aims to make agroforestry more attractive to European farmers by using a multi-actor, co-creation approach. This enhances regional and local expertise and knowledge. We establish a stakeholder engagement platform to connect networks of interested parties, share best practices, and involve regional authorities, institutions, and national policy experts. We expand existing agroforestry, agriculture, and forestry networks to integrate food production and tree management expertise. By improving current learning resources and guidelines, we support farmers in incorporating trees into their farm business models. 

To improve the economic sustainability of agroforestry, ReForest involves key actors across the value chain, fostering a new value system for agroforestry products and services. We promote digitalisation to enhance local innovation, providing farmers and small communities access to knowledge and the capacity to overcome current barriers. The engagement platform facilitates idea exchange and co-creation, reinforcing agroforestry as a viable business model. We capture existing agroforestry experiences, allowing farmers to evaluate long-term performance and incorporate additional income streams, such as subsidies, carbon sequestration, tourism, and ecofarming bonuses. 

Using and adapting existing modelling capabilities, we assess the performance of agroforestry systems and co-create metrics for farmers to evaluate productivity and profitability. We explore machine learning for locally adaptable ecosystem service models, facilitating rapid assessment of alternative agroforestry setups. By valuing ecosystem services, we enable informed decision-making by farmers, advisors, and policymakers. Focusing on carbon sequestration and habitat diversity, we combine data from various sources and integrate satellite and UAV imagery with ground-based biodiversity and carbon capture data. This creates an accurate system to describe changes in carbon and biodiversity value in agroforestry systems.

ReForest emphasises carbon sequestration and habitat diversity as key ecosystem services. We engage financial and business development experts to create financial tools linking global impact finance to local agroforestry associations and farmers. By facilitating discussions among farmers, businesses, banks, and governments, we address issues concerning contracting, verification, and payment systems, potentially requiring policy intervention.