A new manual helps farmers and others design, establish and manage a range of agroforestry systems and practices suitable for conditions in ASEAN Member States and beyond.

Climate change is increasingly experienced in Southeast Asia in the form of rising temperatures, longer periods of hot weather, prolonged droughts, more powerful typhoons and extreme and variable rainfall. Farmers in many parts of the region are facing degradation of arable land, shortage of water, increased occurrence of pests and diseases, declines in crop and livestock productivity and loss of yields. Consequently, their income and food security have been severely threatened.

Accordingly, climate-resilient land-use practices have become a critical topic. Agroforestry — the practice of deliberately integrating trees with crops and/or animals on the same land unit to provide a range of agricultural and forestry products and environmental services — can help to increase the resilience of farmlands and whole landscapes to climatic stresses.

However, lack of knowledge and technical skills to design, establish and manage agroforestry restricts practitioners from undertaking such climate-resilient practices.

One of the key goals of the Vision and Strategic Plan for ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry 2016–2025, endorsed at the 37th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry in 2015, is ‘expansion of resilient agroforestry systems, where ecologically and economically appropriate’, expressed in an action programme under Strategic Thrust 4: To increase resilience to climate change, natural disasters and other shocks. In line with the effort to support wide-scale adoption of resilient agroforestry systems in ASEAN Member States, three important knowledge products have been developed by World Agroforestry (ICRAF) together with RECOFTC The Center for People and Forests, ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry Secretariat and partners in the ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change.

1. ASEAN Guidelines for Agroforestry Development*
2. Training Manual: Agroforestry for Climate-Resilient Landscapes
3. Practitioner’s Field Guide: Agroforestry for Climate-Resilience

All three have now been published. The practitioner’s field guide, most recently, designed to accompany the training manual, which itself supports achievement of the goals of the Guidelines.

The guide has been developed to support the continuous learning and capacity building of agroforestry practitioners. It provides extension workers, farmers and other practitioners with technical guidance on designing, establishing and managing on-farm agroforestry practices that can assist with coping with the negative impacts of extreme climatic events.

The guide is focused on different types of farmland in ASEAN Member States. In each country, the guide should be adapted in accordance with the specific biophysical and socioeconomic contexts of a given landscape under climate change.

Read the manual

Martini E, Nguyen HT, Mercado Jr AR, Finlayson RF, Nguyen TQ, Catacutan DC, Triraganon R. 2020. Practitioner’s field guide: agroforestry for climate resilience. Bogor, Indonesia: World Agroforestry (ICRAF); Bangkok, Thailand: RECOFTC.

*ASEAN Guidelines for Agroforestry Development (various languages)

[ASEAN] Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 2019. ASEAN guidelines for agroforestry development. Authors: Catacutan DC, Finlayson RF, Gassner A, Perdana A, Lusiana B, Leimona B, Simelton E, Öborn I, Galudra G, Roshetko JM, Vaast P, Mulia R, Lasco RL, Dewi S, Borelli S, Yasmi Y. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.

[ASEAN] Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 2019. Panduan ASEAN untuk pengembangan agroforestri. Authors: Catacutan DC, Finlayson RF, Gassner A, Perdana A, Lusiana B, Leimona B, Simelton E, Öborn I, Galudra G, Roshetko JM, Vaast P, Mulia R, Lasco RL, Dewi S, Borelli S, Yasmi Y. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.

[ASEAN] Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 2019. គោលការណ៍ណណនាំ អាស៊ានស្តីពតីការអភិវឌ្ឍ កសិរុក្ខកម្. Authors: Catacutan DC, Finlayson RF, Gassner A, Perdana A, Lusiana B, Leimona B, Simelton E, Öborn I, Galudra G, Roshetko JM, Vaast P, Mulia R, Lasco RL, Dewi S, Borelli S, Yasmi Y. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.

[ASEAN] Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 2019. ຄໍາແນະນໍາ ສໍາລັບ ການພັດທະນາ ກະສິກໍາປ່າໄມ້ ໃນພາກພື້ນອາຊຽນ. Authors: Catacutan DC, Finlayson RF, Gassner A, Perdana A, Lusiana B, Leimona B, Simelton E, Öborn I, Galudra G, Roshetko JM, Vaast P, Mulia R, Lasco RL, Dewi S, Borelli S, Yasmi Y. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.

[ASEAN] Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 2019. သီးႏွံသစ္ေတာေရာေႏွာစနစ္ ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးေရးဆုိင္ရာအာဆီယံ လမ္းညႊန္ခ်က္. Authors: Catacutan DC, Finlayson RF, Gassner A, Perdana A, Lusiana B, Leimona B, Simelton E, Öborn I, Galudra G, Roshetko JM, Vaast P, Mulia R, Lasco RL, Dewi S, Borelli S, Yasmi Y. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.

[ASEAN] Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 2019. Hướng dẫn của ASEAN về phát triển nông lâm kết hợp. Authors: Catacutan DC, Finlayson RF, Gassner A, Perdana A, Lusiana B, Leimona B, Simelton E, Öborn I, Galudra G, Roshetko JM, Vaast P, Mulia R, Lasco RL, Dewi S, Borelli S, Yasmi Y. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.