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Agricultural trees for resilient landscapes: a vision for European agroforestry

The European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF) aims to promote the use of trees on farms throughout Europe. We welcome publication of the Strategic Dialogue for the Future of Agriculture, and the fact that agroforestry is identified as a key tool for sustainable food systems (EURAF Post 4.9.24). Europe needs an emergency, but sustainable, programme of tree […]

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Policy Briefing #15 (v5) Defining forests and agroforests in the EU

Policy Briefing #15 (v5) welcomes the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), noting that it excludes current areas of agriculture and agroforestry. However the EUDR Guidelines place too much faith in the ability of satellite data to distinguish forests from agriculture.  We therefore stress the importance of land-use and cadastral registers, and the need to use the […]

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Policy Briefing #69 v2. Governance and performance of the CAP: the role of agroforestry

Policy Briefing #69 (v1) was produced as an input to a discussion paper from DGAGRI on “Governance and Performance of the CAP”, circulated to the CAP Civil Dialogue Group technical meeting on 12.4.24. Version 2 updates most sections. Discussion on the Forest Monitoring Regulation stresses the need to use national legal definitions of forest rather […]

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Policy Briefing #20. Initial approach to monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) of agroforestry carbon farming in the EU.

Policy Briefing #20 (v3) responds to the provisionally approved text of the Carbon Removals Certification Framework (CRCF). Delegated and Implementing Acts will now be produced by the Commission, aiming to implement “permanent carbon removals”, “removals in harvested products” and “carbon-farming”. This Briefing gives advice on how the Delegated Act on “monitoring, reporting and verification of […]

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Policy Briefing #69. Agroforestry and agri-environmental metrics in the EU

Policy Briefing #69 (v1) is a response to a discussion paper from DGAGRI on “Governance and Performance of the CAP”, circulated to a Civil Dialogue Group technical meeting on 12.4.24.  We conclude that …- Agricultural data needs to be collected in a common geospatial framework linked to forestry, climate, soils, environment, energy and economics and […]

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Policy Briefing #17. Agroforestry in the revised LULUCF Regulation

10 July 2024 Policy Briefing #17 (v4) considers the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and coherence of the 2023 LULUCF Regulation and concludes: a) that emissions reporting and targets should be integrated across the land sector in an “Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use” metric – as has been recommended by IPCC since 2006, and b) that […]

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Policy Briefing #8. Agroforestry for Carbon Farming in Europe

Policy Briefing #8 (v4) reflects the revised text of the EU Regulation for a Carbon Removals Certification Framework (CRCF). It a) summarises current estimates of the carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry in Europe, b) provides a timeline and references for studies of carbon farming in the EU; c) considers how the specific monitoring requirements of […]

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Policy Briefing #15: Monitoring Trees Outside Forests in the EU

Policy Briefing #15 (v4) shows that Trees outside Forests (ToF) are greatly under-reported in EU and FAO statistics, and regrets that they were not mentioned in the EU Forest Monitoring Regulation (FMR).  ToF comprises 20-30% of tree-cover in the EU, and there is a need for consistent reporting of areas of copses, hedges, lines of […]

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Policy Briefing #30. Agroforestry & the draft regulations on Forest Reproductive Material and New Genomic Techniques

Read more about EURAF’s reaction by clicking here or the image down below. This Policy Briefing is an output from the  DigitAF Project Grant agreement: 101059794.  DigitAF is a consortium of 26 European and international partners committed to providing digital tools to boost Agroforestry in Europe to meet climate, biodiversity and sustainable farming goals.  Views […]

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Policy Briefing #29. Agroforestry and Permanent Grassland definitions in EU Member States

Read more about EURAF’s reaction by clicking here or the image down below. This Policy Briefing is an output from the  DigitAF Project Grant agreement: 101059794.  DigitAF is a consortium of 26 European and international partners committed to providing digital tools to boost Agroforestry in Europe to meet climate, biodiversity and sustainable farming goals.  Views […]

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Policy Briefing #28. Agroforestry and the Sustainable Finance Initiative

Read more about EURAF’s reaction by clicking here or the image down below. This Policy Briefing is an output from the  DigitAF Project Grant agreement: 101059794.  DigitAF is a consortium of 26 European and international partners committed to providing digital tools to boost Agroforestry in Europe to meet climate, biodiversity and sustainable farming goals.  Views […]

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Policy Briefing #27. Agroforestry & Adaptation to Climate Change

Agroforestry is mentioned in the Adaptation Strategy or Adaptation Plan of ONLY 11 EU Member States.  This is despite extensive scientific literature on using agroforestry systems to help adapt agriculture and forestry to climate change. There is also a FAO guide on how to include both forestry and agroforestry in National Adaptation Plans.  EURAF suggests […]

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Policy Briefing 26. Agroforestry & the 2040 AFOLU net-zero target

This Briefing is a contribution to the DG CLIMA consultation on 2040 climate targets. It suggests that, if the EU’s target of 3 billion additional trees  by 2030 were planted in agroforestry systems at the density of 150 (50-400) trees/ha, with 1 million ha planted each year to 2050, that a long-term average of 192 Mt CO2 […]

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Policy Briefing #25. Options for FAO Reporting on Trees Outside Forests

This Policy Briefing is provided as an input to the FAO review of monitoring and reporting methods for Trees Outside Forests to be used in 2030 Forest Resource Assessment (with the review scheduled for completion in 2025).  EURAF recommends greater coordination with the UNFCCC forest definitions and the move towards wall-to-wall identification of “lands” in […]

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Policy Briefing #24. Agroforestry & the Sustainable Carbon Cycles Communication

EURAF welcomed the positive vote of the European Parliament plenary (‘own-initiative procedure – rapporteur MEP Bernhuber, EPP/AT) on the “Sustainable Carbon Cycles Communication”. The agreed text reinforces the importance of agroforestry and agroecological farming principles within carbon farming and stresses the need for targets to be included in revised versions of the CAP Strategic Plans. […]

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Policy Briefing #23. Agroforestry Needs in EU Research Framework Programmes (2025-2027)

This document is produced by the EURAF Scientific Committee as a short contribution to the EU consultation on the “past, present and future of European Research and Innovation Programmes 2014-2027 ”. Building on past EU funded projects and scientific publications, a series of activities were organised ahead of drafting this document: collecting feedback from experts affiliated […]

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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 […]

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Policy Briefing #21. Landscape Features in the new CAP

EURAF and ELO have collated the selection of Landscape Features made by Member States in their Strategic Plans for 2023-2027.  All MS except FI and SE implement at least one of the options for hedges, trees in groups, trees in line, isolated trees and forest margins, but the rules for tree crown size and block […]

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Policy Briefing #19. Agroforestry and the ABER Regulation

Changes in the Agricultural Block Exemption Rules (ABER) for State Aid to agriculture, forestry,  fisheries and aquaculture were published on 14.12.22 as Commission Regulation 2022/2472. This replaces Regulation 702/2014, and EURAF particularly welcomes: a) the extension of funding to the restoration of existing agroforestry areas, rather than simply new planting,  b) the increase in payments […]

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Policy Briefing #16: Agroforestry for the Green Deal transition

02 Jun 2022 The Sixth European Agroforestry Conference took place in Nuoro Sardinia from 16-20th May 2020.  This note provides easy access to the abstracts, which have been collated into four TOPICS and 13 SUBTOPICS.  Many of the abstracts are relevant to the European Green Deal, and to a range of agricultural, forestry and environmental policies in the […]

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Policy Briefing #14. Agroforestry in the CAP post 01/01/2023

08 Jan 2022This Policy Briefing pulls together mentions of agroforestry in the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation and the CAP Horizontal Regulation – more will be added on the Delegated Acts when these become available. Read more here and send us your comments.

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Policy Briefing #13. EURAF welcomes the “EU Soil Strategy for 2030”

EURAF Policy Briefing #13 – November 2021. tinyurl.com/aejx9kxj. Comments to [email protected] “Soil Strategy for 2030”On the 17th November the EU Commission released a Communication titled “Soil Strategy for 2030” (Com-2021-699): aiming to “reap the benefits of healthy soils for people, food, nature and climate”. It offers a policy framework to assess the threats to soil quality […]

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Policy Briefing #12: Reaction to the EU “Fit for 55 Package”

11 Aug 2021 The Commission has published its huge legislative package on how to meet the revised target of a 55% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 compared to 1990.  Agroforestry gets significant mentions in the new Forest Strategy and in the revised LULUCF Regulation.  Read EURAF’s initial response HERE and leave comments HERE.

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Policy Briefing #11: EU agroforestry policy for a North American audience

07 Aug 2021 EURAF contributed to the 2021 North American Agroforestry Conference with a Briefing titled “EU Agroforestry Policy 11”.  This gives a short overview of the status of policy discussions in the European Union.  Read on for more details HERE and leave comments HERE.

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Policy Briefing #10. Reaction to the Commission’s advice on CAP SPs

12 Feb 2021 The Commission has made recommendations to all 27 Member States as its contribution to the national “structured dialogues” they are engaged in to prepare their CAP Strategic Plans. Despite its unrivaled promise to help farming deal with its own emissions, add much-needed resilience to fields and landscapes, and provide additional revenue streams to […]

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Policy Briefing #9. Agroforestry Policy in England

26 Jan 2021 On the 9th December the English Rural Payments Agency clarified its rules for basic payments to agroforestry systems. The rules state that full eligibility is given to a) individual trees scattered within an agricultural parcel; b) lines of trees (of a maximum of two trees wide) on an agricultural parcel; c) groups of trees on […]

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Policy Briefing #7. Agroforestry and CAP Monitoring

28 Sep 2020 This Briefing considers how the Commission and Agricultural Ministers propose to measure the success of national measures included in their CAP Strategic Plans.  EURAF recommends that Result Indicator 17 is renamed from “Afforested Land (including agroforestry)” to “Afforested and Agroforested Land” – since establishing agroforestry is ABSOLUTELY NOT afforestationResult Indicator 29 “Preserving Landscape Features” should be restored […]

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Policy Briefing #6. Agroforestry and Pillar II of the new CAP

25 Sep 2020 Pillar II in the new CAP will give longer-term support to farmers for measures helping the environment and climate.  There will not be a menu of EU options for MS to choose from, but EURAF is suggesting to Member States: a) support for agroforestry establishment and maintenance on agricultural land (like the current […]

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Policy Briefing #5. Agroforestry and Ecoschemes

22 Sep 2020 EURAF proposes five Agroforestry and Landscape Feature Eco-Schemes: a) Planning for Agroforestry and Landscape Features b) Tree-Landscape-Feature Establishment; c) Tree-Landscape-Feature Enrichment; d) Agroforestry Establishment; e) Regeneration of Mature Agroforestry.  Read on for full details and leave your comments here.

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Policy Briefing #4. Agroforestry and Enhanced Conditionality

21 Sep 2020 What is “enhanced conditionality” in the new CAP?  How does it differ from the “cross-compliance” we all love? What are the ten Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (or maybe Commandments)? Why are Parliament, Agriculture Ministers and the Commission fighting tooth and nail about something as innocent sounding as “GAEC-9”.  Read on to find out and […]

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Policy Briefing #3. Agroforestry and CAP Direct Payments

18 Sep 2020 Will farmers lose their “area-based” payments if they plant agroforestry?  What about existing trees on farms – is the crown area of these deducted from payments? What difference does it make if the trees are marked as “Landscape Features” in IACS/LPIS?This briefing is a bit technical and includes text from several EU Regulations […]

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Policy Briefing #2. Agroforestry in the EU Forest Strategy

17 Sep 2020The “European Green Deal” promised us a new “New Forest Strategy” to replace the old “New Forest Strategy” from 2013. But let’s be honest: these Strategies have done little to promote the uptake of agroforestry by Member States over the past 25 years. We have some idea is to ensure that this time will […]

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Policy Briefing #1. Agroforestry and the new CAP’s Green Architecture

Agroforestry and the new CAP’s Green Architecture16 Sep 2020For agroforesters, Christmas came early last year!  On 11th December, the European Green Deal was published. This overarching document guides European policy for the next 7 years and recognises the strategic importance of agroforestry! Read on to discover how that has permeated the top thinking at the Commission, and leave […]