Trees on farm: analysis of global extent and geographical patterns of agroforestry
This study by the World Agroforestry Center shows that almost half of the world's farmland has at least 10 percent tree cover. Says that farmers would do more to preserve trees if their trees were included in international climate change negotiations mitigation schemes.
Agroforestry, the inclusion of woody perennials within farming systems, has been both a traditional landuse approach developed by subsistence farmers throughout the tropics, and a livelihood option promoted by landuse managers and international development efforts. Agroforestry systems range from subsistence livestock and pastoral systems to home gardens, alley intercropping, and biomass plantations with a wide diversity of biophysical conditions and socio-ecological characteristics. The extent of its practice has never been quantified leading to widely varied estimates about its importance. This paper is the first attempt to quantify the extent of agroforestry at the global level.