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/
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…
SIGNAL is part of the funding initiative BonaRes (Soil as a sustainable Resource for the Bioeconomy) which aims to improve soil functions through the development of sustainable management systems and increase understanding of soils, soil processes and soil functions. The project aims to evaluate whether and under which site conditions agroforestry in Germany can be a land use alternative that is ecologically, economically, and socially more sustainable than conventional agriculture. The effects of agroforestry systems on soil ecological properties are being investigated at 4 arable and 2 grassland sites in the north-east of Germany. Project information and various publications can be accessed via the website (mainly in German).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
REFOREST: Agroforestry at the forefront of farming sustainably in multifunctional landscapes in Europe.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101060635 (REFOREST). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
UK partners are funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number 10039700].
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