These projects and their objectives form the basis of the World Agroforestry Centre’s Medium Term Plan 2005–2007. They provide a comprehensive overview of the global work of the Centre and the practical implementation of its four global cross-cutting Themes. ICRAF hosts the Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) System-wide Programme, and the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) and their main projects are also included.

Theme – Land and People

Project 1: Improving rural livelihoods through integrated soil fertility management

• Develop an understanding of the nature of soil fertility problems at different scales
• Analyse impacts, synergies, and tradeoffs of promising integrated soil fertility systems
• Facilitate dissemination and adoption of promising agroforestry systems to address soil fertility problems.

Project 2 Conserving soil and water for productive agricultural landscapes

• Identify the nature of the land degradation and soil erosion problem in a landscape context
• Analyse the impacts, synergies and trade-offs of agroforestry systems on conservation, water use and productivity
• Facilitate adoption of agroforestry-based soil and water conservation systems by farmers and to integrate these systems into watershed management strategies.

Project 3: Sustaining productive farming systems through improved agroforestry management

• Identify major problems and prioritise the opportunities for improve crop, livestock and integrated agricultural production or buffering capacity through management of agroforestry systems
• Understand trade-offs between productivity, resilience, and profits of integrated tree, crop and livestock systems under alternative agroforestry management practices
• Facilitate dissemination and adoption of agroforestry systems to improve crop and livestock systems.

Project 4: Reaching the poorest land users with land management interventions

• Identify the poor and other vulnerable smallholder farmers, their agroforestry needs, and their major constraints to benefiting from agroforestry
• Improve the participation of the poor and vulnerable in technology development and diffusion processes
• Promote policy and institutional change that will enhance incentives for improved land management by the poor
• Conduct monitoring and impact assessment that will inform the pro-poor research and development agenda.

Theme – Trees and Markets

Project 1: Market analysis and support to tree product enterprises

• Improve understanding of principles and practices of markets and enterprises, and to promote demand-based approaches
• Understand and publicise current and future demand, structure and performance of tree product markets and identify key policy bottlenecks
• Develop a portfolio of agroforestry tree product (AFTP) market-development projects that illustrate a range of different market levels and situations and to foster networks within key AFTP sectors for exchange of information and best practices
• Reveal and create enterprise models for marketing of new and existing tree products by small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs.

Project 2: Sustainable seed and seedling systems for sound conservation and use of genetic resources of agroforestry trees

• Better inform and mobilise actors to develop better seed systems
• Better inform and mobilise actors to develop better nursery production systems
• Facilitate actors in seed/seedling systems to provide tree germplasm with high utility to poor farmers
• Build up the knowledge base on tree species including germplasm forecasting, species characteristics and recommendation domains.

Project 3: Tree domestication with intensification and diversification of tree cultivation systems

• Rapidly and efficiently evaluate variation at species, provenance, family and clonal levels
• Undertake tree improvement research on priority fruit, medicine, timber, beverage, fodder, oil, fallow, fuelwood and live fence tree species
• Develop appropriate techniques for management and propagation of priority tree species.

Project 4: Farmer-led development and scaling-up of tree-based options

• Develop new practices with farmers and other partners, and assess their feasibility, profitability, and acceptability. Identify policy options and institutional innovations for improving household welfare
• Enable development partners to target, design, and implement successful agroforestry dissemination projects that are cost-efficient and effective
• Enhance the positive impact of agroforestry practices, minimise the negative effects, and understand their advantages and disadvantages relative to alternative practices.

Project 5: Enhanced utilisation of tree diversity at the landscape level

• Enhance the utilisation of tree species diversity at increasing scales within tropical agrarian landscapes
• Manage the intraspecific diversity of priority species by landscape-level participatory approaches
• Investigate the relationships between tree biodiversity and the stability and productivity of agricultural landscapes.

Theme – Environmental Services

Project 1: Pro-poor strategies to enhance watershed functions

• Identify and refine management principles for enhancing the contributions of agroforestry to watershed functions
• Develop and apply models to predict the effects of different landscape configurations on watershed function
• Improve incentives and cooperation between upstream and downstream communities to implement land use strategies that protect water supplies while enhancing other ecosystem services.

Project 2: Use and conservation of biological diversity in multi-functional landscapes

• Identify and refine management principles for enhancing the contributions of agroforestry to the conservation and enrichment of biodiversity in multifunctional landscapes
• Ensure agroforestry research and development contribute to goals of increasing biodiversity in priority agroecosystems
• Modify forestry and conservation policies to enhance the contribution of agroforestry to the conservation of biodiversity in working landscapes.

Project 3: Climate change mitigation and adaptation for rural development

• Identify and refine management principles for enhancing the contributions of agroforestry to buffering against climate variability
• Identify and refine management principles for reducing the contributions of agriculture to atmospheric greenhouse gas loading
• Support the design and implementation of environmental service projects aiming to promote the dual goals of rural development and carbon sequestration
• Enhance the ability of developing-country nationals to plan effectively for climate change and to engage effectively in international mechanisms for emission reduction.

Project 4: Harmonising policy for environmental stewardship and rural development

• Empower a critical mass of national and regional expertise in effective methods for multi-stakeholder assessment and negotiation support
• Empower vulnerable groups of indigenous people who rely on agroforestry with more secure property rights
• Develop, test and disseminate policy and institutional options for agroforestry to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers while meeting environmental objectives
• Empower governments in priority countries to enact changes in environmental governance that recognise the multi-functional nature of landscapes
• Contribute to the modification of international and regional conventions, agreements and action plans to better facilitate the contributions of smallholder farmers practicing agroforestry.

Theme – Strengthening Institutions

Project 1: Strengthening agricultural research institutions and systems

• Increase the number of agroforestry research projects at national institutions
• Support the development of national agroforestry research programmes.

Project 2: Strengthening the agroforestry capacity of development institutions and systems

• Ensure agroforestry knowledge products are effectively disseminated through training
• Accelerate the adoption and impact of agroforestry innovations by involving local and national institutions.

Project 3: Strengthening educational institutions and systems

• Mainstream inter-and multi-disciplinary land management approaches into tertiary education for improved productivity and conservation
• Prepare youth completing basic education with life skills by enhancing teaching methods and educational resources related to farming and agricultural enterprises.

Project 4: Fostering inter-institutional collaboration and knowledge management

• Foster collaboration and synergy among agroforestry and related institutions
• Improve the quality of service and access to agroforestry/integrated natural resource management (INRM) knowledge and products.

Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) - System-wide Programme

Purpose 1 Assist ASB partners to accelerate the participatory development, adaptation, and spread of technologies and land use practices that conserve biodiversity, store carbon, and maintain local environmental services, while providing attractive opportunities for poor rural households in the humid tropics to increase their income and food security.

Purpose 2 Support ASB partners’ efforts to formulate and implement policy options and institutional innovations for integrated ecosystem management that encourage the adoption and sustainable management of land use alternatives in the humid tropics that reduce poverty while conserving biodiversity, carbon stocks, and other environmental services.

Purpose 3 Build sustainable operational capacity in NARS, IARCs, and other institutions for work on integrated natural resource management.

African Highlands Initiative (AHI) - System-wide Programme

Purpose 1 Enable AHI partners to develop and use an integrated, participatory NRM approach to develop and adapt practical technologies and practices that improve land use, increase returns to land and labour, arrest land and biodiversity degradation in the highlands and empower local communities to sustain these efforts.

Purpose 2 Provide support through AHI partners to local policy makers and stakeholder groups to analyse, formulate and implement improved institutional arrangements and policies that reverse land and biodiversity degradation and improve livelihoods.

Purpose 3 Strengthen the capacity of NARS, IARCs and other institutions to use integrated, participatory NRM approaches across the eco-region ensuring that efforts to improve livelihoods and land management are sustainable.