Policy Briefing #22. Agroforestry definitions in the new CAP

There are many definitions of agroforestry, for example: 

• a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. [1]

• a dynamic, ecologically based, natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees in farm- and rangeland, diversifies and sustains smallholder production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits [2]

• all forms of association between trees and cultures and/or animal production on an agricultural parcel, whether it is in the interior of the parcel or on its edges [3]

• the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal systems to support the conservation, benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions [4].

• land use systems where trees are grown in combination with agriculture on the same land (EU Regulations 1305/2013 and 2472/2022) 

For this reason the Commission asked Member States to publish their own national definitions of agroforestry in their CAP Strategic Plans, asking them to distinguish between arable land, permanent crops and permanent pasture.  Read more in EURAF’s policy briefing #22.