Description of the REFOREST engagement platform

The objective of the REFOREST engagement platform is to enable and sustain co-creation activities, including scoping and integration of research to agricultural practice and policy formulation support. The platform provides a closed space for community building, stakeholder engagement, innovation stimulation, education and training, and instrument testing (metrics, models, policy suggestions). The implementation and management of the platform is carried out in three stages.

The first (current) stage of the platform provides the basic architecture and functionalities to support community building actions. The “Home” page contains key information about the REFOREST project and the platform, as well as links to the project and EMEA websites. The platform allows new stakeholders to register and join its closed space. It also provides a comprehensive forum for discussion and societal awareness, which aims to bridge the latest knowledge on agroforestry to society. The “Platform” section describes the platform. The “Community” subsection provides a visualisation of the members of the community and a map with their locations and profiles. The “Repository” subsection contains reference documents and tools produced and gathered by the project (e.g., learning provisions and guidelines) to support farmers in integrating trees into their farm business models. Moreover, the platform has a subsection dedicated to the collection of information and data through surveys designed and launched by each work package. These surveys aim to support the process of engagement with target groups and stakeholders during the different stages of the project. Lastly, the platform has a calendar of events organised as part of the project.

The second stage of the platform (end of 2023) will be developed according to the needs of the project and will focus on the development of working groups and engagement of living labs and case studies. The platform will host the knowledge inventory for the synthesis and exchange of knowledge between researchers and practitioners on agroforestry design and performance based on available data and evidence. It will have a section dedicated to the visualisation of technical data about the REFOREST living labs as an observatory of data created by the project. The platform will also provide farmers with online tools such as the FarmTree model that quantifies the performance of agroforestry systems based on local species, species management, markets, soil and climate conditions.

The third stage of the platform (end of 2024) will be focused on the visualisation of the resources (e.g., with the use of maps and figures) collected and created by the project.

EMEA will update and maintain the platform for the duration of the project. The platform will closely involve the European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF), which will take it over and ensure that the feed of information can continue beyond the end of the project.

Visit the REFOREST website: https://agroreforest.eu/