Kate's blog

For an overview of day-by-day happenings at the Congress, take a look at the Daily Highlights. Each pdf includes a summary of the day’s plenary sessions, panel discussions and symposia together with participant photos and other items of interest.

Opening day highlights – Monday 24 October 2009

As the Congress wound up, news of agroforestry continued to feature in media across the globe. Here is a summary of some more of the coverage with links to stories where they are available online.

Discovery News
African Tree Makes Soils Rich for Crops

SciDev.net
Acacia tree can boost crops — and more — across Africa

In her keynote address on the final day of the Congress, Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, emphasized the need for greater integration between organizations working in natural resource management. “While we are working on different issues, we are all working for the same global goals”.

“A sectoral approach has been largely ineffective in ecosystem management,” said Cropper “the challenge is to understand and address the management of natural systems in a more systematic manner”.

The potential for the native African tree, Faidherbia albida to provide a ‘natural fertilizer’ and improve maize yields in many parts of the continent together with the World Agroforestry Centre’s study to quantify the extent of tree cover on agricultural land gained further coverage on the second and third day of the Congress.

Here are just some of the stories on agroforestry gaining media attention.

TIME.com
As Farmland Grows, the Trees Fight Back
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1918315,00.html

Voice of America
Study Says Trees on Farms Could Help Stop Deforestation

Media coverage of the Congress continues to be high, including a story in the Iceland media. Among the highlights was a story by Xinhua News Agency (China) which notes Chinese expert Xu Jianchu’s call for African countries to encourage small-scale farmers to embrace agroforestry and for governments to provide subsidies to those farmers. A Reuters story appeared in several newspapers, including Le Monde (France), Shanghai Daily (China), and numerous Canadian papers. Radio interviews with Peter Minang ran on BBC Afrique and Radio France Internationale on Monday.

Media coverage of the Congress has already reached France, Spain, India and China as well as hitting the pages and airwaves of Kenyan and African media.

I work in the Communications Unit of the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi. During the Congress week, I'll be reporting on a range of presentations and discussions - in particular, the policy issues and constraints surrounding agroforestry.