Opinion: Here’s how agroforestry can help the world reach climate goals

Agroforestry accounts for more than one-tenth of the world’s livelihoods. Photo by: World Agroforestry Centre/Ashok Sahoo

Emerging evidence indicates that, at roughly 1 billion hectares of land coverage worldwide, agroforestry offers a tremendous opportunity to store carbon — up to 34.2 petagrams of carbon — the equivalent of holding 20 years of emissions from deforestation in agroforestry systems worldwide.

Most governments recognize that agroforestry — the practice of integrating and managing trees on agricultural landscapes — holds great potential toward meeting their climate goals. What’s more, its widespread use and the familiarity of poor farmers with the practice makes agroforestry a potential low-hanging fruit for achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation goals, especially in developing countries. Indeed, a new study by the World Agroforestry Centre, released at COP23, of the nationally determined contributions, NDCs, of 22 countries found that 85 percent mention agroforestry as a key strategy in achieving their unconditional national contributions.

The report proposes several ways through which countries can tap the opportunity that agroforestry presents in achieving their NDCs and provides a series of recommendations for governments to help create an enabling environment for including agroforestry in agriculture policies and practices.

This article was originally published on the website of Devex