Invest in trees – fight poverty AND climate change

When Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) develops new global strategies for sustainable development this autumn, the importance of agroforestry needs to be emphasised.
 
This is proposed by experts from Agroforestry Network in a new opinion piece published in Omvärlden, the leading Swedish magazine on development cooperation. The opinion piece is based on a report published by FAO earlier this summer. The FAO-report provides compelling evidence that forests and trees are essential for food security and nutrition. The report argues that agriculture and forestry should not be separated in policies, development and other institutional work as the two land management strategies are interlinked and dependent of each other.
 
In the opinion piece we argue that SIDA needs to seize this opportunity to promote agroforestry as large scale implementation of this land management land management strategy can:
– improve agricultural productivity;
– diversify farms and create more sources of income;
– adapt vulnerable agriculture to a changing climate;
– mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases.
 
By promoting agroforestry both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement can be reached.
 
Read the opinion piece in Omvärlden. An English translation will soon be available.
 
Picture Credit: Bioversity International/R.Khalil (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).