[PDF]Permaculture: Agroforestry in Europe-Current Status and Future Prospects

varices in Agroforestry




Current Status and
Future Prospects



£j Springer



Agroforestry in Europe
Current Status and Future Prospects



Advances in Agroforestry



Volume 6



Series Editor:
P.K.R. Nair

School of Forest Resources and Conservation,
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A.

Aims and Scope

Agroforestry, the purposeful growing of trees and crops in interacting combinations, began to
attain prominence in the late 1970s, when the international scientific community embraced its
potentials in the tropics and recognized it as a practice in search of science. During the 1990s, the
relevance of agroforestry for solving problems related to deterioration of family farms, increased
soil erosion, surface and ground water pollution, and decreased biodiversity was recognized in the
industrialized nations too. Thus, agroforestry is now receiving increasing attention as a sustainable
land-management option the world over because of its ecological, economic, and social attributes.
Consequently, the knowledge-base of agroforestry is being expanded at a rapid rate as illustrated
by the increasing number and quality of scientific publications of various forms on different
aspects of agroforestry.

Making full and efficient use of this upsurge in scientific agroforestry is both a challenge and an
opportunity to the agroforestry scientific community. In order to help prepare themselves better
for facing the challenge and seizing the opportunity, agoroforestry scientists need access to
synthesized information on multi-dimensional aspects of scientific agroforesty.

The aim of this new book-series, Advances in Agroforestry, is to offer state-of-fhe art synthesis of
research results and evaluations relating to different aspects of agroforestry. Its scope is broad enough
to encompass any and all aspects of agroforestry research and development. Contributions are
welcome as well as solicited from competent authors on any aspect of agroforestry. Volumes in the
series will consist of reference books, subject-specific monographs, peer-reviewed publications out of
conferences, comprehensive evaluations of specific projects, and other book-length compilations of
scientific and professional merit and relevance to the science and practice of agroforestiy worldwide.



For other titles published in this series, go to
www.springer.com/series/6904



Antonio Rigueiro-Rodriguez • Jim McAdam

Maria Rosa Mosquera-Losada

Editors



Agroforestry in Europe

Current Status and Future Prospects



Springer



Dr. Jim McAdam

Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute
and Queen's University
Belfast, UK

Dr. Maria Rosa Mosquera-Losada
University of Santiago de Compostela
Book Coordinator
Lugo, Spain



Dr. Antonio Rigueiro-Rodrfguez
University of Santiago de Compostela
Lugo, Spain



ISBN: 978-1-4020-8271-9 e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-8272-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008928525
© 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written
permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose
of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

Cover photograph by Jose Javier Santiago Freijanes.

Printed on acid-free paper

987654321

springer.com



Foreword



Agroforestry has come of age during the past three decades. The age-old practice
of growing trees and crops and sometimes animals in interacting combinations -
that has been ignored in the single-commodity-oriented agricultural and forestry
development paradigms - has been brought into the realm of modern land-use.
Today agroforestry is well on its way to becoming a specialized science at a level
similar to those of crop science and forestry science.

To most land-use experts, however, agroforestry has a tropical connotation. They
consider agroforestry as something that can and can only be identified with the
tropics. That is a wrong perception. While it is true that the tropics, compared to
the temperate regions, have a wider array of agroforestry systems and hold greater
promise for potential agroforestry interventions, it is also true that agroforestry has
several opportunities in the temperate regions too. Indeed, the role of agroforestry
is now recognized in Europe as exemplified by this book, North America, and
elsewhere in the temperate zone. Current interest in ecosystem management in
industrialized countries strongly suggests that there is a need to embrace and apply
agroforestry principles to help mitigate the environmental problems caused or
exacerbated by commercial agricultural and forestry production enterprises. If we
are to meet the society's needs and aspirations for forest-derived goods and
services, we must find ways of augmenting traditional forestry by gleaning some
portion of these benefits from agricultural lands where agroforestry can be
practiced. In many places, the only opportunity to provide increased forest-based
benefits, such as wildlife habitat or forested riparian systems, is through the
increased use of agroforestry on agricultural lands. The publication of this book is
very timely. As the editors say, the European Union has recognized the economic,
ecological, and social advantages of agroforestry in its rural development policy;
but the implementation of the policy is adversely affected by the lack of adequate
information on the subject. The need for such a book is obvious.

I want to say how much I appreciate the enormous amount of work involved
in bringing together such a volume. The state of agroforestry in Europe and litera-
ture on it being at early stages of development, it must have been a daunting task
for the authors to piece together the information they have so painstakingly gath-
ered for their chapters. I congratulate all the authors and the editors for such a



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Foreword



wonderful job. Undoubtedly, this is a significant contribution to agroforestry
literature worldwide and a great service to the fledgling field of European
agroforestry.

Distinguished Professor P. K. Ramachandran Nair

University of Florida September 2008

Gainesville, Florida, USA
(Editor, Advances in Agroforestry Book-Series)



Preface



While recent EU Rural Development policy clearly recognizes the economic,
ecological, and social advantages of agroforestry systems, to date the implementa-
tion of such systems has been poor so far throughout most of Europe. In light of
this, this collection of peer-reviewed papers brings together some of the most
important current research in European agroforestry, and evaluates the current
scope and future potential of agroforestry across the EU.

This volume contains a selection of papers covering the most recent research,
embracing the wide range of geographical zones and crops and livestock systems
found in Europe. While the majority of Europe's agroforestry practices are currently
focused in the Mediterranean, this volume draws together examples from a wide
range of countries - including France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK. The book also
covers a range of agroforestry types, including silvopasture - Europe's predominant
form of agroforestry - silvoarable, forest farming and multipurpose trees, but also
explains some other practices like improved fallow and riparian buffer strips.
Through these examples the book also discusses the potential roles for these
traditional land management systems in addressing both environmental issues such
as carbon sequestration, water quality, biodiversity conservation, desertification,
soil preservation ecosystem services and socioeconomic issues such as rural
population stabilization.

Augmented by detailed reviews of the main elements of European agroforestry
and the issues that face it, this timely collection of research papers provides a
valuable reference for advanced students and researchers, administrators and policy
makers interested in a wide range of issues around land use, rural development,
natural resource management, landscape ecology and conservation across Europe,
and for those interested in agroforestry - including practitioners, researchers and
extension organizations - worldwide.

This book is structured in four main parts: the Introduction, the European
Mediterranean Agroforestry systems, the European Atlantic Agroforestry systems
and the European Continental, Pannonian and Alpine Agroforestry systems. At the
end of the book a chapter related to future directions is provided.

The Introduction part give the reader a general perspective on the development
of agroforestry practices and systems in Europe in fourth chapters. It is important

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Preface



to highlight that there has been no previous attempt in describing agroforestry in
pan-European level although there are some books and other publications dealing
with specific aspects of the main agroforestry practices implemented, e.g. silvopas-
ture. The first chapter of the book introduces the reader to the description of the
main agroforestry practices found in Europe: silvoarable, forest farming, riparian
buffer strips, silvopasture, improved fallow and multipurpose trees. The current sit-
uation of the main components of agroforestry systems, i.e. tree and agricultural
(including pasture and livestock), are briefly described to give the reader an initial
balanced perspective on the status of European agroforestry systems and practices
at a farm level. The second chapter reviews different types of classifications and
functions of current agroforestry systems in Europe according to their components,
spatial and temporal arrangements, functions, agroecological zone and socio-eco-
nomic aspects, focusing on silvopastoral and silvoarable practices, the main types
of agroforestry practiced in Europe. The third chapter of this part of the book is
related to the future perspective for the use of these agroforestry systems at a farm
level, based on their productive and ecological advantages. The fourth and final
chapter of this part of the book deals with a social study conducted at 14 locations
in seven countries within the European Union, to evaluate the degree of knowledge
about agroforestry practices and the potential benefits and disadvantages that they
can bring to farmers.

Part II dealing European Mediterranean Agroforestry systems has 10 chapters
(Chapters 5 to 14). These chapters provide descriptions and development of agro-
forestry systems in the densely populated countries of the Mediterranean areas and
examine how the economics of agroforestry systems in Europe has changed over
time due to the different social conditions of the farmers. The countries/regions to
which the chapters relate include Greece (Chapter 5), the transitional Atlantic-
Mediterranean area of Western Europe (Chapter 6) and the four autonomous
regions of the Mediterranean part of Spain: Cataluna, Murcia, Extremadura and
Andalusia (Chapters 7 to 10). These have very different rural social structure,
physical mountain geography and Mediterranean climate sub-classification types.
While dehesa, the most widespread agroforestry system of southern Europe is the
focus of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 deals with the forest grazing type of agroforestry
practice in Cataluna. Chapter 9 presents studies on agroforestry practices in a river
basin and along an altitudinal and precipitation gradient from to 2,000 m asl and
from 300 to 1,000 mm year 1 , respectively, in southern Spain. Various aspects of
silvopasture are included in detail in the next two chapters (10 and 11). Chapter 12
deals with the main types of agroforestry practices in the Mediterranean and Alpine
biogeographic regions of Italy. This chapter also evaluates the connection between
them through traditional and current management. A socioeconomic study of cork
oak agroforestry systems is the subject of Chapter 13. The part concludes with
Chapter 14 that deals with forest farming, explaining the history of truffle produc-
tion within the main European countries and presenting a synthesis of the best
practices to reach high truffle productivity.

The next book part (Part III) deals with the European Atlantic Agroforestry
systems in three chapters. This biogeographic region is characterized by having a



Preface



ix



history of clear-cut separation between forest and agricultural land, at all levels
including education, farming systems and policy. Allocation of the most productive
areas to agricultural production, often at the expense of forest, has been an impor-
tant feature of the land-use policy in the region. Thus, agroforestry systems are
neither widespread nor properly implemented in this part of Europe. In the recent
years, some important afforestation schemes have been carried out in this zone,
even though some parts have the lowest proportion of forestland in Europe. The
first paper of this part of the book (Chapter 15) describes a methodology used to
locate the dominant trees distributed throughout Europe and demonstrates the
advantages of applying stratification to estimate a complex land use resource, using
the different ecological conditions found in the region. Chapter 16 deals with the
development over time and description of current agroforestry practices in the
Netherlands, while the opportunities for introducing silvopastoral and silvoarable
systems in Ireland, one of the least forested areas of Europe, is the focus of Chapter
17. The chapters in this part clearly bring out the point that the main driving force
behind the introduction of such systems in the region is the promotion of floral and
faunal biodiversity and other aspects of environmental sustainability that are
adversely impacted by agriculture.

The final part of the book deals with European Continental, Pannonian and
Alpine Agroforestry systems in four chapters and explains that the main aims of
implementing agroforestry systems in these areas are to exploit the environmental
and crop protection functions offered by trees. The implementation of agroforestry
practices in Germany is described in Chapter 18, whereas Chapter 19 describes the
Alpine regions silvopastoral systems in Switzerland, where, unlike in the
Mediterranean areas, supplementary food for livestock is obtained during summer
time. Chapter 20 presents the Slovenian perspectives on agroforestry covering not
only Alpine and Continental areas, but also Mediterranean areas and even some
areas with Atlantic climatic characteristics. The final chapter of this part (Chapter
21) describes the specific characteristics of silvopastoral and silvoarable agroforestry
practiced in the Pannonian region and explains how implementation practices such
as hedgerows is very important in dealing with the special climatic characteristics
of wind and snow in the region.

This book concludes with a synthesis (Chapter 22) of the information presented
in the various chapters emphasizing the major challenges as well as opportunities
of agroforestry in Europe.

We hope that this collection of research papers, augmented by detailed reviews
of the main elements of European agroforestry and the issues facing it, will be a
valuable reference source for advanced students and researchers, administrators and
policy makers interested in a wide range of issues around land use, rural develop-
ment, natural resource management, landscape ecology, and conservation across
Europe, and for those interested in agroforestry - including practitioners, research-
ers and extension organizations - worldwide.

We thank all authors of individual chapters for their excellent contributions as
well as splendid cooperation in dealing with repeated revisions of their manuscripts.
Each chapter was peer-reviewed; the reviewers did a superb job in enhancing the



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Preface



content and presentation quality of the respective chapters. Finally, a special word
of appreciation to Professor P.K. Nair, the book-series editor, for suggesting the
idea for such a book, and following it through its completion with consistent
encouragement and valuable directives thought the process.

Rigueiro-Rodriguez A
McAdam A

Mosquera-Losada MR (Book Coordinator)



Contents



Foreword v

Preface vii

Contributors xv

Reviewers xxi

Part I Introduction

1 Definitions and Components of Agroforestry Practices in Europe. ... 3

M.R. Mosquera-Losada, J.H. McAdam, R. Romero-Franco,
J.J. Santiago-Freijanes, and A. Rigueiro-Rodriguez

2 Classifications and Functions of Agroforestry Systems

in Europe 21

J.H. McAdam, RJ. Burgess, A.R. Graves, A. Rigueiro-Rodriguez,
and M.R. Mosquera-Losada

3 Agroforestry Systems in Europe: Productive, Ecological

and Social Perspectives 43

A. Rigueiro-Rodriguez, E. Fernandez-Nunez, P. Gonzalez-Hernandez,
J.H. McAdam, and M.R. Mosquera-Losada

4 Farmer Perceptions of Silvoarable Systems in Seven

European Countries 67

A.R. Graves, RJ. Burgess, F. Liagre, A. Pisanelli, P. Paris, G. Moreno,
M. Bellido, M. Mayus, M. Postma, B. Schindler, K. Mantzanas,
V.P. Papanastasis, and C. Dupraz

Part II European Mediterranean Agroforestry Systems

5 Traditional Agroforestry Systems and Their Evolution in Greece .... 89

V.P. Papanastasis, K. Mantzanas, O. Dini-Papanastasi, and I. Ispikoudis
>>>