Agroforestry as nexus of sustainable development goals: rediscovering an old practice?

Meine van Noordwijk served until mid-2017 as Chief Scientist at the World Agroforestry (ICRAF), based in Bogor (Indonesia) and since that time as Distinguished Senior Fellow. He is also part-time Professor of Agroforestry at Wageningen University (the Netherlands). Meine has long and broad experience of agroforestry research globally, and particular from Indonesia where he has been based for more than 25 years. He is the editor of a recent book 'Sustainable Development through Trees on Farms - Agroforestry in its Fifth Decade'.

Agroforestry, as platform for harmonizing agriculture and forestry in their interactions with landscapes and rural and peri(urban) livelihoods, offers opportunities to benefit from synergies across sustainable development goals (SDGs), and deal with the unavoidable trade-offs. Such synergy, however, may only emerge if site-specific analysis of the multiple functions of landscapes leads to a shared understanding among stakeholders, clear commitment to common goals, effective means of implementation and a system that remains open to innovation by monitoring functions rather than form, and regularly re-evaluates effectiveness of policy instruments.