How can agroforestry foster collaboration and learning among different stakeholders and sectors?

2 Challenges of agroforestry

Despite its potential, agroforestry faces many challenges that limit its adoption and scaling up. Some of these challenges include lack of knowledge, skills, and resources among farmers and extension agents, inadequate policies and markets that support agroforestry products and services, competing land uses and interests, and complex trade-offs and risks involved in agroforestry systems. To overcome these challenges, agroforestry requires a holistic and participatory approach that involves multiple stakeholders and sectors.

3 Collaboration in agroforestry

Collaboration is essential for agroforestry to succeed and thrive. Collaboration can take many forms, such as co-learning, co-design, co-implementation, co-evaluation, and co-innovation. Collaboration can also occur at different levels, such as local, national, regional, and global. Collaboration can help to share knowledge and experiences, build trust and relationships, identify common goals and priorities, leverage resources and capacities, coordinate actions and interventions, and generate feedback and learning.

4 Learning in agroforestry

Learning is another key aspect of agroforestry that can foster collaboration and improvement. Learning can be formal or informal, individual or collective, experiential or theoretical, adaptive or transformative. Learning can also be facilitated by different methods and tools, such as field visits, workshops, demonstrations, networks, platforms, case studies, models, indicators, and evaluations. Learning can help to enhance awareness and understanding, develop skills and competencies, foster innovation and creativity, solve problems and challenges, and monitor and measure impacts and outcomes.

5 Examples of agroforestry collaboration and learning

There are many examples of agroforestry collaboration and learning around the world that can inspire and inform others. For instance, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is a global research organization that works with partners from various sectors and disciplines to generate and disseminate agroforestry knowledge and solutions. Another example is the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), which is a pan-African movement that aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 through agroforestry and other practices, involving governments, civil society, private sector, and donors. A third example is the Agroforestry Network, which is a Swedish-based platform that connects practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and funders to exchange information and experiences on agroforestry.

6 Implications for agroforestry

Agroforestry is not only a technical practice, but also a social process that requires collaboration and learning among different stakeholders and sectors. By fostering collaboration and learning, agroforestry can create opportunities and benefits for multiple actors and objectives, as well as address the challenges and trade-offs that arise from complex and dynamic systems. Agroforestry can also be a catalyst for transformational change towards more sustainable and resilient landscapes and livelihoods.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?