Young farmers apply ancient agroforestry practices in the heart of Sardinia
DESULO, Italy — In a late 1990s photo, a little girl with a ponytail and white apron poses at the corner of a cheese-making machine. Two decades later, with the…
Mongabay series: Global Agroforestry
An ancient agricultural system, agroforestry combines trees with shrubs, crops, and livestock in a system that produces food, supports biodiversity, builds soil horizons and water tables, and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere -- this series explores how and where it is being practiced by indigenous communities, traditional agriculturists, and new farmers.
Agroforestry program in Appalachia receives $590,000 in federal funding
Appalachia is home to some of the most biodiverse temperate forests in the world, and it has a deep history of harvesting species like American ginseng for personal use and…
$85 million initiative to scale up agroforestry in Africa announced
Amid a deluge of news during the U.N. Climate Summit last month, one major announcement went largely uncovered, yet is among the most important initiatives aimed at reducing the effects…
Agroforestry: An ancient ‘indigenous technology’ with wide modern appeal (commentary)
Agroforestry, or forest gardening, is the practice of growing of trees, shrubs, herbs, and vegetables together in a group mimicking a forest, or within an existing forest, with each plant…
World Agroforestry Congress gathers huge group of global boosters in France
Day two of the World Agroforestry Congress was in full swing today as the 1,200 plus attendees streamed into workshops and swirled among some 600+ posters hanging in the halls…
Coops, community, and agroforestry: Q&A with coffee entrepreneur Dean Cycon
Dean Cycon is an environmental and indigenous rights lawyer by training who's been involved in community development since 1976. He founded or co-founded numerous international development groups, including Coffee Kids…
‘The ultimate agricultural practice’: Q&A with organizers of World Agroforestry Congress 2019
Agroforestry is an agricultural technique that combines trees with shrubs, crops and livestock in a system that produces food, supports biodiversity, builds soil horizons and water tables, and sequesters carbon from…
Agroforestry empowers Morocco’s mountain women
OUEZZANE, Morocco — Suisi Rheia was checking the olives on her tree in front of the community huilerie, or olive oil mill. It was already mid-November 2018, but some fruits…
Agroforestry helps Tajikistan farmers overcome resource pressures
ISFARA, Tajikistan — Ayubhudja Yahyehudjaev stands between rows of fruit trees in the hills above town, glad and proud that this agroforestry test garden of nearly 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres)…
PNG farmers use agroforestry to fight crop diseases and reduce labor
LAE, Papua New Guinea — Across the more than 600 islands that make up Papua New Guinea, the majority of the country’s culturally diverse population relies on agriculture for both…
Ethiopia: Khat farming threatens food security, biodiversity, women, and agroforestry
WONDO GENET, Ethiopia – Agroforestry has been the major agricultural farming system in southern Ethiopia’s Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) regional state for millennia, passed on from generation to…
‘We see its value’: Ugandan communities benefiting from agroforestry
BUTANDA, Uganda — On a forested hill in the highlands of Butanda, in western Uganda, James Rwebishengye and Florence Atwine have created a diverse forest canopy of more than 200…
Agroforestry ‘home gardens’ build community resilience in southern Ethiopia
BULE, Ethiopia — A small village 370 kilometers (230 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa, Bule is believed to be the birthplace of traditional “home garden” agroforestry in Ethiopia.…
Smallholder farmers defy cocoa’s production model in Brazil
COMBU ISLAND, Brazil - It is rare to find someone who doesn’t like chocolate. When the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus gave cocoa its scientific name in 1753, he chose Theobroma…
Agroforestry supports food security and conservation in Papua New Guinea
GILDIPASI, Papua New Guinea — After a short walk from his community on Papua New Guinea’s northern coast, Yat Paol clears away dried leaves from a shady patch of ground…
Agroforestry saves soil and boosts livelihoods in Tajikistan
FAIZOBOD, Tajikistan — Mirzoli Azizov, a 54-year-old farmer, is sorting apples from the second harvest this year from his agroforestry gardens in this district 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of…
Fire and agroforestry revive California indigenous groups’ traditions
ORLEANS, California — Frank Lake stoops beside a low-growing shrub, cups one hand beneath a cluster of cobalt berries and swiftly claps it to his mouth. The purple-lipped grin he flashes…
Business and biodiversity benefit from Kyrgyz agroforestry systems
KOK-TALAA, Batken province, Kyrgyzstan — The Batken region is located in the southern part of the Fergana Valley, on Kyrgyzstan’s border with Uzbekistan. Like the rest of Kyrgyzstan, much of its…
Traditional Kyrgyz walnut-apple forests provide map for sustainable future
KYZL-UNKUR, Jalalabad region, Kyrgyzstan — The mountain road leading to Kyzyl-Unkur winds through a gorge. Three hours later, on a broken road, one finds the village surrounded on all sides…
Traditional groups sowing sustainable crops could save Venezuelan park
Caura National Park is under pressure from gold miners, but Afro-Venezuelan and indigenous groups have teamed with NGOs and companies to do sustainable agroforestry and safeguard forests.
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- On anniversary of nun’s murder Amazon land rights activists at high risk
- Iran upholds heavy sentences for conservationists convicted of spying
- Two deaths trigger alarm at Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
Indonesias forest guardians
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Amazon infrastructure
- BR-319 illegal side road threatens Amazon protected area, indigenous land (commentary)
- Barrage of mining requests targets Brazil’s isolated indigenous peoples
- Database offers new details on the dams that hold mining waste
Asian rhinos
- Indonesia-WWF split puts rhino breeding project in Borneo in limbo
- Indonesian officials wield sharia law in defense of Sumatran rhinos
- Love triangle complicates efforts to breed Sumatran rhinos
