Charlie Pye Smith's blog

Achim Steiner, the executive director of UNEP, introduced the plenary. "What role can agroforestry play in a world of six and a half billion, soon to be 9 billion people?" he asked. Three keynote speakers described how agroforestry can play an important part in the battle against climate change, encourage conservation and promote a new paradigm of multi-functional agriculture.

Chaired by Roger Leakey, the symposium featured three presentations touching on various aspects of tree domestication in West and Central Africa, Latin America and Southern Africa. One of the key messages was that tree domestication can significantly increase the incomes of smallholder farmers and rural dwellers. It can also provide considerable environmental benefits.

Download the full report for Symposium 2: Domestication of agroforestry tree crops

The main aim of the discussion, explained Ravi Prabhu, the moderator, was to get the panel, with the help of the audience, to articulate the challenges facing agroforestry.

The six-strong panel included representatives of a wide range of different organisations and interests, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an Indonesian indigenous peoples’ group, a Kenyan goat farmers’ association, a major Indian industrial company, a network of African research institutes and an organisation devoted to the research and promotion of bamboo and rattan.

The Monday panel discussions highlighted how important it is for agroforesters to tell compelling stories. Most of the panelists realised this, and rather than talking in abstract terms, they frequently referred to particular projects or experiences. This is one of the best ways of engaging policy-makers and the public.

When scientists fail to get their message across to a wider public, or to policy makers, it's often because they’re speaking an obscure language, laden with jargon only they understand. However, one of the things that impressed me about the Monday panel discussion was that everyone spoke in plain English. If someone had walked in from the street, they'd have had no trouble understanding what was being said. I can't recall a single mention, for example, of the word ‘stakeholder’.

I spend much my time working as an in-house writer for the World Agroforestry Centre and the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).