Towards an enabling environment for agroforestry in Flanders: Roadmap 2.0

The transformative potential of these agroforestry (and by extension other agroecological) initiatives is significant, but can only be realized if there is a willingness to institutionalize these innovative practices in our agrifood system based on a supportive base, cooperation and collaboration. Many actors play a guiding role in this story, and action must be taken simultaneously at several levels. The aim of this 'roadmap' is to offer a structured framework and inspiration for such action. We do this through five concrete development pathways: (1) the scientific and technological pathway, (2) the economic pathway, (3) the policy pathway, (4) the education pathway and (5) the social pathway. For each of these pathways, we identify the current bottlenecks and opportunities, put forward a future vision for 2035, and suggest priority actions to stimulate agroforestry in Flanders and beyond.

The visions for 2035 are as follows:

Scientific and Technological Pathway:

"Flanders is structurally committed to funding and facilitating long-term research into the various dimensions (biophysical, socio-economic, etc.) and various forms of agroforestry. This research starts from a system-oriented co-creation approach. This implies strong participation of all stakeholders, where each type of actor can contribute and share their role, experience and expertise, from the identification of the research questions to the execution of the research itself. This ensures that the solutions are practical, user-friendly and responsive to the real needs of all types of actors. Research focuses on the development of new techniques and technologies to support various agroforestry practices. In addition, research recognizes the complexity and addresses the need for (decision) support and unburdening of practitioners. Finally, an efficient research approach is pursued through a strong connection to the European research network and EURAF."

Economy Pathway:

"Farmers who want to start with agroforestry dispose of the necessary tools to predict the costs and benefits, also in the long term, and therefore make feasible and successful choices. In addition to a correct price for harvestable products, ecosystem services from agroforestry also receive recognition from society and are valued through innovative financing mechanisms. In addition, the value chain for the most common agroforestry products has been developed through different levels and forms of cooperation, providing significant revenue from the production, processing and sale of these products."

Policy and Legislation Pathway:

"Policy supports scaling up of successful and effective agroforestry systems, to choose between implementing agroforestry on any farm as viable an option as any other choice. To this end, three major sub-objectives are realized: (1) A clear, coherent and workable legislative framework exists for agroforestry, fed by the sector and supported by a policy that recognizes the added value of agroforestry and actively stimulates its development, with sufficient room for experimentation, (2) a clear and quantitative ambition for the implementation of agroforestry has been formulated from the perspective of Flemish policy, and (3) continued efforts are made to support agroforestry entrepreneurs, both financially and in terms of guidance and advice."

Education Pathway:

"Every stakeholder in the agri-food system, or anyone who has an interest in or can play a role in the application of agroforestry, has at least a basic notion of what agroforestry entails and what opportunities it can offer. To this end, these actors are objectively informed through formal, non-formal or informal learning. The available knowledge and experience are accessible and manageable, and the necessary learning tools are developed for this purpose."

Pathway of Social Environment:

"Farmers who start agroforestry experience support in their social environment. Local government, fellow farmers, residents, others involved in the farm business, direct customers, land management authorities in the immediate vicinity and the general public recognize the added value of (products and services realized within) agroforestry systems and contribute to social support for it."

The future visions formulated in this report serve as a kind of compass showing what has already been realized and what still needs to be realized. In short, they bring a focus and then also help give direction to activities that contribute to the future visions and the resulting objectives and action plans. In the next phase, the predetermined visions and actions will still have to be operationalized into "SMART" objectives and concrete action plans. Before this can be achieved, e.g. also success indicators will have to be identified. 

This roadmap shows that creating a supportive environment for agroforestry (and broader than that for all pioneering forms of agroecological agriculture) goes beyond making subsidies available to farmers. A systemic approach which focuses not only on farmers but activates all actors in the (circular) food system is needed. This requires adjustments in policy, education, research, the agri-food chain and the social environment. This requires the involvement of different actors, in different domains (health, nature, agriculture, etc.) and at different levels (citizens, farm owners, municipal officials, national government, etc.).

These actions are furthermore connected to the broader framework of agricultural development in which critical factors need to be addressed. In addition to the challenges specific to agroforestry systems, there are several challenges in the agricultural sector in general that also make it difficult for agroforestry farmers to start or sustain in the current agricultural landscape. True pricing, access to land and tension between agriculture and nature, are some of these general, critical issues.

The roadmap can also be found at www.agroforestryvlaanderen.be.