A voluntary non-profit organisation that promotes agroforestry practices in the Czech Republic. It connects the interests of agroforestry farmers, scientific organisations and agricultural consultants and focuses primarily on education, raising awareness and exchanging information about agroforestry between farmers, advisors and other groups. The goal of the association is to raise awareness of the alternative use of agricultural land in the style of agroforestry systems, and to improve the condition of the soil and the environment without reducing production. It is a very important platform for the exchange of information (the website hosts many useful resources such as videos, reports and newsletters), and organises meetings, educational events and presentations on agroforestry issues in the Czech Republic.
This video is a Hungarian innovation tutorial video on wood pasture restoration aiming to share farmer experiences on agroforestry system management. Produced as part of the AFINET project, it features Antal Varga at Zöldág Farm in Hungary, which is a ReForest living lab farm. Find out more about it here https://agroreforest.eu/living-lab-hungary-olaszfalu/
The app will firstly give you access to Forest Research’s state-of-the-art Ecological Site Classification (ESC), APP model, giving you information on suitability of tree species, also allowing you to see how climate change will likely affect your holding. Future climate scenarios adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) of greenhouse gases concentration trajectory, all of which are considered possible depending on the volume of greenhouse gases emitted in the years to come. RCP is directly linked to global mean average temperature in Celsius.
These tools will enable you to make an informed choice of which wild species trees have the greatest chance to survive climate change predictions on your land site. Information on other outputs from trees in farming to help you assess how it fits with your other enterprises and business is also included, as well as ideas for planting schemes and configurations. Planting in mixed species stands provides the best outcome for both tree species and their pollinators as this provides forage over a greater part of each season, helping ensure pollinators don’t starve. APP4future schemes also provide habitat and forage for pollinators, whose populations are declining. Supporting pollinators is vital for nature and our farmed landscape, increasing pollination and yields of all insect-pollinated crops.
Short film (in Flemish with English subtitles) produced as part of an Interreg Europe project – BioGov. It outlines the part trees can play in providing animal fodder, animal welfare, combating erosion, enhancing biodiversity and limiting greenhouse gases and gives some information on which trees should be planted where and how. It features Wim Govaerts who explains mineral deficiencies in cows and ways in which tree fodder can provide different minerals. For example, ash, rowan and maple can help with copper deficiency, hornbeam and hazel can provide manganese…
Funded by the European Union, the LIVINGAGRO project aims to share innovations in agroforestry with stakeholders working with olives and grazed woodlands in Mediterranean countries, to help them increase profitability, sustainability, and biodiversity, in the face of limited resources and environmental constraints. It tackles these issues using an open innovation approach, with two Living Laboratories enabling interactions among innovators and stakeholders.
The two labs focus on olive multifunctional systems and grazed woodlands. Traditionally olive orchards were, and often still are, managed as agroforestry systems, in combination with cereals, fodder legumes and/or pasture. Grazed woodlands are major agroforestry systems in the Mediterranean that contribute greatly to sustaining local economies, supplying both vegetal and animal products.
The project involves 6 organisations from 4 different countries; Italy, Greece, Jordan and Lebanon. You can access publications, descriptions of field trials, and sign up to get project newsletters giving detailed information from the living labs.
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.
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.
Three UK upland farmers talk about how they are integrating and using trees to their best advantage on their farms in this video by the Soil Association (supported by FABulous Farmers). They refer to the benefits of giving their livestock access to trees and hedgerows and give their insights in to why trees are good for the animals (through providing shelter, shade and browse/fodder), soil health, biodiversity, the environment (i.e. flood protection and carbon storage) and the farm income. The video features beef cattle and sheep farmer Andrew Barbour from Mains of Fincastle in Perthshire, sheep farmer Glansant Morgan from Pwllyrhwyaid Farm near Brecon in Wales, and dairy farmer Freya Meredith from Lower Withecombe Farm on Dartmoor in Devon. It also features Luke Dale Harris (Innovative Farmers silvopasture trial co-ordinator from FWAG SW) and Kate Still from the Soil Association Farming Team.
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.
Recording of a presentation given at International Symposium on Climate-Resilient Agri-Environmental Systems (ISCRAES) – featuring Jim McAdam, Eugene Curran and Ian Short. It focuses on two trials in Ireland comparing the performance of silovapasture with that of grassland and woodland.
