FOREWORD

When the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism first came together in the early 1990s, its vocation was to provide a narrative bridge between pristine ‘nature’ (something largely seen as linked to nature reserves) on the one hand and destructive ‘agriculture’ on the other. Our message was that, in between those two extremes, a large part of Europe’s biodiversity survives, and often thrives, on land used for agriculture, on what came later to be known as High Nature Value (HNV) farmland. In fact, we said, without sustainable HNV farmland and viable HNV farming systems, Europe will fail to achieve its biodiversity goals.

A significant proportion of that HNV farmland consists of tall ligneous vegetation, most especially (these days, but not historically) in the Mediterranean region. Here we encountered a second mental polarisation, this time between ‘forest’ and ‘farmland’.

Once more, this was a division which existed first and foremost in the imagination of administrators, but which had then, over a century or more, been enforced on the landscape through all sorts of policies, latterly through the eligibility rules for agricultural area payments. But again the existence of an appropriate and vibrant grazing ‘agroforestry’ economy at a large scale is essential not only to delivering the objectives of the Habitats Directive, but this time also and even more so in the evermore difficult struggle against wildfire. Grazing remains the only realistic means of fuel reduction at the landscape scale.

One thing we have found over the last thirty years has been that even if our nuanced description of the situation is truer than the polarised one it aims to replace (the European Environment Agency reckons that around one third of European farmland has significant areas of semi-natural vegation and is managed at low intensity),

* The European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism brings together ecologists, nature conservationists, farmers and policy makers. This non-profit network exists to increase understanding of the nature-conservation and cultural value of certain farming systems, and to inform work on their maintenance. For more information, see www.efncp.org agricultural, foresty and nature stakeholders often seem happier dealing with the old divisions, and the same is true when it comes to ‘farmland’ and ‘forest’. This needs to change, and quickly.

Are there grounds for optimism? Maybe. We hear that eligibilty rules might be relaxed. We see the word ‘agroforestry’ written here and there in policy documents and legal instruments. Is this a sign of a shift in the mental jigsaw?

Reading the draft Nature Restoration Regulation, the old tropes are still clearly visible – promation of the exclusion of grazing from habitats, the division of the landscape in ways which make sense in Brussels, but often don’t fit reality on the ground. Does ‘agroforestry’ just conjure up visions of rows of poplars in intensive grassland fields or does it now extend to phrygana and maquis?

What about the vocation of grazing for fire risk management? Surely in that case the urgency of the matter will trump institutional inertia? The stories of policy retreat and failure one hears from France – once a leader in the field – make one extreme pessimistic that narratives have truly changed. Meanwhile in other countries, initiatives to manage firebreaks spring up while the pastoral systems which reduce fuel over the whole landscape are neglected and in a state of collapse.

When all’s said and done, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Will all the new policies lead to woody habitats in better condition at the scale of whole biogeographic zones? To fire risk reduction across the Mediterranean basin? Only a vibrant pastoral economy can deliver these objectives, and policy has a strong role in enabling such an economy of profitable businesses attractive to the next generation to develop.

This book, which shines a light on this neglected area where farming and forestry, nature and fire hazard all come together, thus comes at a key time. Whether there is cause for optimism or not, there’s no doubt that there’s a huge job of awarenessraising and policy transformation to carry out, and anything which helps in that process is very much to be welcomed. It is therefore a pleasure and an honour to be asked to write these few words of introduction.

Gwyn Jones

European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism https://www.efncp.org/ Email: dgl_jones@yahoo.co.uk

AGROFORESTRY - DEFINITIONS

Agroforestry is the name given to a traditional practice of land use in which woody plants are purposefully combined with agricultural crops or pasture/ grazing animals on the same piece of land, concurrently or sequentially. This combination results in the creation of a system with two or more plant species, at least one of which being woody, which yields two or more products, has a productive cycle longer than a year and establishes important economic and ecological interactions among the woody plants and the other components. Agroforestry is neither synonymous with forestry, namely the management of natural or artificial forests, nor with conventional agriculture.

The combinations created by agroforestry are polycultures known as agroforestry systems. These systems are artificial because they incorporate humans who manage them based on traditional or new knowledge. When arranged in a specific area along with other natural (e.g. climate, water, soil), geomorphological (e.g. rock, relief, streams) and cultural (e.g. terraces, roads, buildings, water basins) characteristics they form agroforestry landscapes.

Although woody plants also include shrubs, trees are the dominant structural element of agroforestry systems, creating the overstory. They may be native or planted forest or cultivated (fruit trees). The other two structural elements of agroforestry systems are agricultural crops or pasture creating the understory, and grazing animals that feed on this and sometimes even the overstory. From the combination of these structural elements three types of agroforestry systems may be derived: silvoarable, silvopastoral and agrosilvopastoral. Silvoarable are the systems that combine trees and crops (e.g. arable, horticultural or fodder crops). Silvopastoral are the systems that combine trees and pasture/ grazing animals. Agrosilvopastoral, finally, are those that combine trees, crops and grazing (usually after the crop harvest). In all these types trees may be scattered across the plot of land, grouped together in small stands or arranged in rows (e.g. hedgerows).