The potential of agroforestry was highlighted by EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojicechowski during the press conferences this week. Calling the link between the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and forest strategy “very important”, he championed agroforestry as an instrument to contribute to the forestry targets, highlighting that the new CAP will allow member states to support carbon farming and agroforestry via the new eco schemes instruments, as well as rural development measures. “When designing their interventions, member states can take into account the specific needs and opportunities of their forestry sectors, but they must also match the larger ambitions of the strategy as agreed,” he said. Historically, the uptake of CAP funding for trees has been low, as Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius noted during a press conference this week. This can be put down to a reluctance to plant trees over fears that farmers will dip out on CAP subsidies, stemming from a limitation of tree density to 100 trees per hectare in the current CAP. This has made farmers wary of establishing, promoting and using agroforestry practices. According to Commissioner Sinkevičius, the new CAP offers “increased flexibility to design forest related interventions according to national needs.” The question is, will the combination of this new climate package and the CAP reform be enough to encourage farmers to branch out? In particular, much is being made of member states' national strategic plans as a vehicle to promote agroforestry practices across the EU. “The Commission will ensure that strategic plans are assessed against robust climate and environmental criteria. These plans should lead to the use of sustainable practices, such as precision agriculture, organic farming, agro-ecology, agro-forestry and stricter animal welfare standards,” the communication on the Green Deal reads. But, despite the promise of agroforestry in contributing to many of the Commission’s flagship policies, EURAF points out that the term is completely missing from the Commission’s recommendations to 16 member states. Meanwhile, it’s sibling ‘agroecology’ is also missing from 21 national recommendations, despite also being a keyword used in the Green Deal. It remains unclear how the Commission can expect member states to take up agroforestry practices in their national plans if it does not appear in the majority of the recommendations. Time will tell if nice words be translated into tree-planting action. But it would (or wood) be a missed opportunity for the EU's farming sector. |