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Focus on Agroforestry

In recent years, forests have come to occupy a pivotal role in the debate on climate change. While it's long been known that trees and forests help regulate the climate by absorbing heat-trapping carbon gasses, only recently have scientists begun to fully recognize that unsustainable, slash-and-burn agriculture and other poor land-management practices have resulted in forestry itself becoming a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Indeed, although the majority of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and forest degradation account for approximately one-fifth of the total, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Much attention has been focused on the destruction of tropical rain forests in places such as Burma, Indonesia and the Amazon—a legacy of profligacy that urgently calls for building political coalitions to change public policy and develop incentives for protection and restoration. Meanwhile, individuals can immediately help blunt the effects of climate change by directly supporting reforestation efforts. New forests and sustainable land-use projects, whose environmental benefits have tended to be undervalued, could substantially compensate for rain forest destruction.

This is not to say all forests are equal. Rain forests are ecologically diverse, and planting trees in Belize won;t save Amazonian species threatened by the obliteration of rain forests in Brazil for cattle grazing.

Nevertheless, since all CO2 emissions ultimately enter the same atmosphere, the climate crisis knows no borders. And as government ministers survey the global landscape leading up to a crucial climate policy meeting in Copenhagen, in December 2009, the costs and benefits of forest-based carbon sequestration strategies deserve to be front-and-center.

Have no doubt: Tree planting in tropical latitudes of developing countries is the most efficient way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. On average, each tree planted in the humid tropics absorbs 50 pounds of carbon dioxide every year for at least 40 years, amounting to one ton over the course of the tree;s lifetime. The potential for scalable benefits is huge because at present, only about 10% of the world;s deforested lands are being rejuvenated with tree planting.

On June 5, World Environment Day, the UNEP released a report entitled "The Natural Fix? The Role of Ecosystems in Climate Mitigation" The report makes clear that the cost of ecosystem carbon management can be very low compared to other "clean energy" options.

"Tens of billions of dollars are being earmarked for carbon capture and storage at power stations with the CO2 to be buried underground or under the sea," noted Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director. However, he added, the earth;s biosphere, by some estimates, "might be capable of sequestering more than 50 gigatons of carbon over the coming decades with the right market signals."

The report notes that if the market price of carbon-emission reduction credits were to rise from a current level of around $20 per ton to $100 per ton, "forestry and agriculture combined would be more important than any other single sector, and would retain high importance even at lower carbon prices."

But to realize this potential, structural changes are needed in the carbon market to make it easier for developing countries to generate tradable emission-reduction credits from forestry projects. At present, the international climate regime only partly addresses emissions from land-use change, such as deforestation, and does not provide incentives for reducing carbon emissions from forests and other ecosystems, let alone conserving them as carbon sinks.

Whatever the outcome of negotiations over a new climate agreement at the upcoming meeting in Copenhagen, thanks in part to efforts like UNEP;s "Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign," new forests are already taking root in Asia, Central America and other tropical regions. The campaign originally set a goal of planting one billion trees but has since issued a new target of seven billion trees—roughly one tree for every living person on the planet—by the end of 2009.

"When the Billion Tree Campaign was launched at the Climate Convention meeting in Nairobi in 2006, no one could have imagined that it could flower so fast and so far," UNEP;s Steiner said in a statement issued in May 2008, when the new goal was announced. "But it has given expression to not only the frustrations but also the hopes of millions of people around the world."

The optimism is based not only on hopes for the environment but also the boost that tree-planting and so-called "agroforestry" projects are providing to the agricultural productivity and incomes of indigenous peoples in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Indeed, a key premise of agroforestry is that trees are a source of economic development in which indigenous peoples are the key stakeholders. Based on an intimate knowledge of plants and their place in the ecosystem, agroforestry empowers communities to restore tree cover to lands that have been degraded by logging and slash-and-burn farming.

Burning forest and using the ash to fertilize crops is unsustainable. When rains erode the ash and topsoil and the land becomes degraded, farmers move on to a new plot and repeat the cycle. Eventually they can find themselves impoverished, having been pushed onto smaller pieces of land or hillsides that can barely sustain subsistence farming. Farmers may even abandon their livelihood altogether and relocate to urban areas, causing social dislocation and jeopardizing the continuity of indigenous cultures.

An antidote to slash-and-burn practices, agroforestry integrates agriculture, trees, people and animals in ways that restore ecological balance, while allowing farmers to make the best possible use of the resources they already possess and to cultivate the same pieces of land indefinitely. They are not paid to plant trees. Rather, farmers and local communities accept agroforestry assistance, seeds, resources and training because they understand that planting and properly sustaining trees can provide a lifetime of income and legacy that can be proudly passed along to future generations.

But agroforestry is not just about improving agricultural yields and economic opportunity. Profit and project funds stay within the community, providing cash necessary for water-purification projects, school supplies and other initiatives while also helping preserve indigenous cultures by reducing the need for people to leave home to find work. Other benefits range from improved health through better nutrition and reduced contact with toxic agrochemicals to the conservation and regeneration of biodiversity and protection from storms. (Forests, by acting as buffers, can greatly reduce the threat posed by hurricanes in countries such as Haiti).

Program participants typically receive extensive on-site training and long-term technical assistance. Instruction covers areas such how to construct and manage nurseries; pruning, grafting and transplanting techniques; crop diversification; how to collect seeds from trees and how to care for the trees in the first years of development. Such training is especially powerful when implemented in conjunction with community loan funds, education in basic business skills, and school programs that teach sustainability and provide hand-on experience with seeds and seedlings.

Agroforestry techniques are tailored to the needs of the community using ecologically appropriate tree species. However, indigenous species are not always best suited to arrest soil erosion and rejuvenate depleted lands. Sometimes what;s required as a first step is the planting of non-indigenous, fast-growing trees that have the ability not just to survive but also to begin the process of regenerating the land and bringing back native species.

In a practice known as multistory cropping, families plant trees and grow crops in a way that mimics the interdependence of a natural tropical rainforest. Hardwood trees such as mahogany and rosewood are planted as a long-term investment, to provide a top story of shade and a future source of timber for construction. The next story down consists of fast-growing, leguminous trees—so named because they produce pods (or legumes). Leguminous trees recharge the soil;s nitrogen and can provide a renewable source of firewood. Below them are shorter, shade-loving species such as bananas, cacao and coffee, which are often the primary annual cash crops.

Another proven agroforestry practice is ally cropping, where rows of nitrogen-fixing trees like leuceana, which are native to Mexico and Central America, are planted between rows of crops like corn and cassava. The trees have strong taproots that can fertilize surrounding crops by drawing nitrogen from deep in the earth up to the topsoil. When they grow tall and begin to shade sun-loving crops like corn, the trees can be cut back to a stump, which will regenerate thanks to the already-established taproot. Cut leaves and stems can be left on the soil as a mulch, and the harvested wood can be used for building materials, fence posts or firewood. The leaves are also excellent feed for animals like goats and sheep.

Providing funding for such sustainable land-management practices, and ensuring that local communities receive a fair share of the benefits from their implementation, is the most effective long-term approach to the problems of deforestation and land degradation.