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How is agroforestry perceived in Europe? An assessment of positive and negative aspects by stakeholders

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Abstract

Whilst the benefits of agroforestry are widely recognised in tropical latitudes few studies have assessed how agroforestry is perceived in temperate latitudes. This study evaluates how stakeholders and key actors including farmers, landowners, agricultural advisors, researchers and environmentalists perceive the implementation and expansion of agroforestry in Europe. Meetings were held with 30 stakeholder groups covering different agroforestry systems in 2014 in eleven EU countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). In total 344 valid responses were received to a questionnaire where stakeholders were asked to rank the positive and negative aspects of implementing agroforestry in their region. Improved biodiversity and wildlife habitats, animal health and welfare, and landscape aesthetics were seen as the main positive aspects of agroforestry. By contrast, increased labour, complexity of work, management costs and administrative burden were seen as the most important negative aspects. Overall, improving the environmental value of agriculture was seen as the main benefit of agroforestry, whilst management and socio-economic issues were seen as the greatest barriers. The great variability in the opportunities and barriers of the systems suggests enhanced adoption of agroforestry across Europe will be most likely to occur with specific initiatives for each type of system.

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Acknowledgements

We are very thankful for the 344 respondents who spared time to attend the stakeholder workshops and to complete the questionnaires. We acknowledge Nuria Ferreiro Domínguez, Delphine Meziere and Anna Varga for the help to collect data in the stakeholder workshops. We acknowledge support of the European Commission through the AGFORWARD FP7 research project (Contract No. 613520) (www.agforward.eu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cranfield University. Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK

    Silvestre García de Jalón, Paul J. Burgess & Anil Graves

  2. Forestry Research Group, INDEHESA, Universidad de Extremadura, Plasencia, Spain

    Gerardo Moreno

  3. Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Newforge Lane, Belfast, UK

    Jim McAdam

  4. Institut de l’Elevage, 149 Rue de Bercy, 75012, Paris, France

    Eric Pottier

  5. FERLUS, INRA, Les Verrines, 86600, Lusignan, France

    Sandra Novak

  6. Veneto Agricoltura, Legnaro, 35020, Padua, Italy

    Valerio Bondesan

  7. Crop Production Department, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain

    Rosa Mosquera-Losada

  8. Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Josep Crous-Durán, Joao H. N. Palma, Joana A. Paulo & Tania S. Oliveira

  9. Chambres d’Agriculture of Charente-Maritime, 2 Avenue de Fétilly, 17000, La Rochelle, France

    Eric Cirou

  10. Chambres d’Agriculture of France, 9 avenue George V, 75008, Paris, France

    Yousri Hannachi

  11. Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, Technological Educational Institute (TEI) Stereas Elladas, 36100, Lamia, Greece

    Anastasia Pantera

  12. Chambres d’Agriculture of Picardie, 19 Bis Rue Alexandre Dumas, 80090, Amiens, France

    Régis Wartelle

  13. Research Division Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zurich, Switzerland

    Sonja Kay

  14. Association Française d’Agroforesterie (AFAF), 93 route de Pessan, 32000, Auch, France

    Nina Malignier

  15. Institut pour le Développement Forestier (IDF-ACTA), 149 rue de Bercy CEDEX 12, 75595, Paris, France

    Philippe Van Lerberghe

  16. Specialized area for soil protection and recultivation, Brandenburgische Technische Universität (BTU) Cottbus-Senftenberg, Konrad-Wachsmann-Allee 6, 03046, Cottbus, Germany

    Penka Tsonkova & Jaconette Mirck

  17. European Forest Institute, Yliopistokatu 6, 80100, Joensuu, Finland

    Mercedes Rois & Staffan Berg

  18. Department of Agroecology - Agricultural Systems and Sustainability, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 20, Tjele, 8830, Denmark

    Anne Grete Kongsted

  19. Department of Sciences for the Action and Development (SAD Paysage), INRA, 35042, Rennes, France

    Claudine Thenail

  20. Louis Bolk Institute, Kosterijland 3, 3981 AJ, Bunnik, The Netherlands

    Boki Luske

  21. Department of Environment and Agronomy · UMR SYSTEM, INRA, Montpellier, France

    Marie Gosme

  22. Institute of Forest and Environmental Techniques, University of West Hungary, Bajcsy-Zs. u.4, Sopron, 9400, Hungary

    Andrea Vityi

Authors
  1. Silvestre García de Jalón
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  2. Paul J. Burgess
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  3. Anil Graves
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  4. Gerardo Moreno
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  5. Jim McAdam
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  6. Eric Pottier
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  7. Sandra Novak
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  8. Valerio Bondesan
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  9. Rosa Mosquera-Losada
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  10. Josep Crous-Durán
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  11. Joao H. N. Palma
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  12. Joana A. Paulo
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  13. Tania S. Oliveira
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  14. Eric Cirou
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  15. Yousri Hannachi
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  16. Anastasia Pantera
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  17. Régis Wartelle
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  18. Sonja Kay
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  19. Nina Malignier
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  20. Philippe Van Lerberghe
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  21. Penka Tsonkova
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  22. Jaconette Mirck
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  23. Mercedes Rois
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  24. Anne Grete Kongsted
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  25. Claudine Thenail
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  26. Boki Luske
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  27. Staffan Berg
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  28. Marie Gosme
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  29. Andrea Vityi
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Correspondence to Silvestre García de Jalón.

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García de Jalón, S., Burgess, P.J., Graves, A. et al. How is agroforestry perceived in Europe? An assessment of positive and negative aspects by stakeholders. Agroforest Syst 92, 829–848 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0116-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0116-3

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