How can agroforestry systems be scaled-up and intensified without losing their benefits, especially to food security and nutrition?

This question is posed in an article on the website of the Thomson Reuters Foundation following the success of the recent World Congress on Agroforestry and increasing global interest in agroforestry as a sustainable alternative to intensive farming and commercial forestry.

Carbon finance is seen as one of the key strategies to increasing the uptake of agroforestry. Trees on farms can store significant Carbon and make a valuable contribution to mitigating climate change while at the same time building farmers’ resilience to the impacts of changing weather patterns.

Access to Carbon finance relies on sound measurement of Carbon stored above and below ground in agroforestry systems. During the Congress, several examples were given of how these measurements are being made, but including such projects in REDD+ programmes will rely on the commitment of individual countries.

The article outlines how Carbon finance projects have been slow to get going and those that exist are small and in voluntary markets. Making agroforestry systems part of REDD+ could mean increased funding to “expand and intensity agroforestry systems, provide training and supplies for farmers, and scale up practices that we know make a huge difference in rural communities”.

However, it is unclear if the revenue generated from Carbon finance would be enough to achieve these goals and strong enough incentive for farmers to participate. There is also the issue of whether agroforestry for Carbon would come at the expense of growing foods for crops and restrict farmers from doing as they wish, such as cutting down trees or changing the crops they grow.

Livelihoods and food security must be given top priority in the formulation of REDD+ policies.

Read the full story: Can carbon finance take small-scale agroforestry to the next level?