This chapter is a significant rewrite of the first edition, but excludes developments in the UK, which are discussed in Chapter 4. For the past two decades, agroforestry has been an active research and extension topic in Europe and is increasingly important within EU agricultural, environmental, energy and climate change policies. The structure of this chapter has been revised to reflect these trends. The chapter starts with a description of silvopastoral (Section 2) and silvoarable (Section 3) systems in Europe, covering both historical practices and modern trials. Section 4 deals with linear agroforestry systems, including wooded hedgerows and riparian tree strips. Section 5 discusses research lessons and outstanding questions. Section 6 describes the incentives and disincentives faced by agroforestry within the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and how these affect its uptake. Section 7 covers the important role that agroforestry has to play in the EU Energy and Climate Change policies.
This chapter reviews the theories behind agroforestry in the UK, showing how experimental analysis has increased understanding of how such systems function, and reviews the current position regarding commercial agroforestry in the constituent countries of the UK. The chapter also analyses policy instruments that act as barriers or otherwise to the adoption of agroforestry in future, and discusses how agroforestry products are marketed in the UK and evaluates measures to show how effective agroforestry is.
This chapter defines temperate agroforestry as 'the incorporation of trees into farming systems' or even better, 'farming with trees.' The chapter also provides the historical perspective, key systems and species used in temperate agroforestry. Finally, the chapter describes the structure of the book and states that the book describes some practices and applications that technically may not be a part of an 'agroforestry system', or even a system unto itself, but that are definitely agroforestry-related. They serve to show what agroforestry using a systems approach can offer to agriculture and the rest of society.
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