Combat climate change and hunger with trees

Agroforestry is a sustainable, proven and efficient land management system, according to the experts behind the new report Achieving the Global Goals through Agroforestry.

Combining crops and trees

The report is a result of collaboration between the members of the Agroforestry Network which brings together different actors, such as SLU Global, Agroforestry Sverige, Focali, NIRAS, SIANI, SwedBio at Stockholm Resilience Centre and Vi-skogen (Vi Agroforestry).

Despite proven benefits, agroforestry is still not receiving the attention it deserves and investments in agroforestry are insufficient. The new report from the Agroforestry Network, builds on an extensive literature review of 1,000 scientific publications and other reports about practical agroforestry projects.

The report presents environmental, social and economic benefits of agroforestry at the farmer, community and landscape levels. The authors of the report paid special attention to the benefits of agroforestry to food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and biodiversity.

Agroforestry can contribute to 9 of 17 SDGs

The report presents evidence of how agroforestry can contribute to implementation of nine out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Agroforestry has the strongest impact potential on poverty reduction (SDG 1) and hunger alleviation (SDG 2), as well as on climate action (SDG 13) and sustainable life on land (SDG 15).

In addition, the report shows that agroforestry can contribute to other goals relating to increased gender equality, better health, increased access to clean water, sustainable energy solutions and responsible agricultural production.