Agroforestry Type: Dehesa / Montado

AgroForAdapt

AgroForAdapt is a EU LIFE project promoting agroforestry systems for climate change adaptation of agrarian and forestry sectors in Mediterranean areas. It focuses on two types of agroforestry systems: silvoarable and silvopastoral, with the aim of obtaining benefits resulting from the interactions between the trees and the crops or livestock.

The project aims to evaluate and demonstrate how Mediterranean agroforestry systems are a land use that promotes resilience to drought and forest fires, while improving the provision of multiple ecosystem services i.e. protecting biodiversity, income diversification, profitability, carbon fixation, landscape and socio-cultural values etc. It aims to increase the Mediterranean demonstrative agroforestry area by installing or improving the management of 291 ha of silvoarable systems and 511 ha of silvopastoral systems and inducing the replication of additional 300 and 1,075 ha, respectively. It is focused on developing and applying innovative tools to evaluate ecosystem services and vulnerability to climate change, facilitating the design and prioritisation of areas to install agroforestry systems, and evaluating the long-term performance of demonstrative agroforestry systems.

Various publications and resources will be accessible / can be accessed via the website (some are in Spanish only).

RIVEAL: RIparian forest Values and Ecosystem services in uncertain freshwater futures and Altered Landscapes

The RIVEAL project aimed to map and quantify key ecosystem services (ES) of riparian forests and predict the balance of ES under diverse climatic, land use and water management scenarios in the Portuguese fluvial landscapes. The project focused on three ES: Fluvial ecological integrity, carbon stocks and carbon sequestration, and direct and indirect socio-cultural values. Project expectations included determining the trade-offs and synergies of land-use conversion on ES of riparian forests. The factsheets that you can access from the website are particularly useful.

Spanish Farmers Reduce Fire Risk Through Sustainable Agroforestry Practices

A short film in Galicia, Spain, the European area with the highest density of fires, where there are some farmers and ranchers who practice traditional methods of agroforestry and livestock farming. It gives some insights into how mixing crops, trees and grazing animals on the same land can provide benefits for soil health, carbon sequestration and fire prevention. You can also access an interesting written article from the video description. The video is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Why Dairy Farming And Silvopastoral Agroforestry Could Be The Perfect Match

Article featured in Irish Farm Business Dairying magazine written by the Irish Agroforestry Forum. It asks could silvopasture be a design solution to the environmental challenges facing farming? It outlines many ways that well designed silvopasture can benefit a farm and farm business, including helping increase profits and productivity and animal and soil health, diversifying the farm business, buffering against weather, drought and flood risks while benefiting the environment, and positively impacting the water and carbon cycle. You can download the article from this webpage.

Devon silvopasture network

Seven farmers and a research farm in Devon, UK, are integrating trees with livestock on their farms and monitoring the impact on livestock behaviour, biodiversity and soil health metrics as part of a 12-year field lab through the Innovative Farmers programme involving the Woodland Trust, Organic Research Centre, Rothamsted Research and FWAG SW. Three designs are being tested, with a mixture of cluster planting, regular spacing and shelterbelts.

The farm enterprises are a mixture of dairy, beef, sheep and arable. The Woodland Trust have worked with the farmers to design planting systems. Each design has been chosen to suit the grazing requirements of the farmers as well as fitting into the natural environment surrounding the chosen fields. Over 12 years, the farmers are monitoring tree establishment and factors that may affect this (fencing, wildlife, livestock interactions and the use of decoy rubbing posts and ‘sacrificial willow’ to distract livestock from protected trees and shrubs). The aim is to provide the first ever set of long-term data practically grounded in the reality of commercial farms.

From this page you can access a series of short films featuring farmers explaining why there are researching silvopasture and detailed technical information on the three designs being tested.

Farm Wilder webinar: Silvopasture benefits for livestock

This webinar which explored the many benefits trees can bring to livestock systems, featuring UK Organic Research Centre’s livestock researcher Lindsay Whistance. It focuses particularly on:
– Trees for productivity and animal welfare
– Nutritional and medical properties of tree fodder
– Planting designs and choosing species
– Grants and funding opportunities

Skip to content