Diversified Production Systems
Agroforestry and deforestation-free agricultural practices that improve smallholders’ livelihoods
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We work with smallholders and other stakeholders to promote the adoption of agroforestry and deforestation-free agricultural practices. This increases smallholders’ resilience, while contributing to global biodiversity and climate goals.
In many tropical forest frontier landscapes, the production of export commodities such as palm oil and soy has been growing rapidly, often at the expense of natural forests. They are typically cultivated in monocultures, leading to monotonous, treeless landscapes that deplete soil health and leave farmers vulnerable to climate shocks and volatile markets. It undermines the long-term resilience and sustainability of both ecosystems and rural livelihoods.
Two key opportunities can reverse current trends. First, markets and regulations for deforestation-free products create incentives to halt forest encroachment. Second, diverse agricultural systems, such as agroforestry, provide a strong basis for resilient and sustainable farming. By integrating trees with crops—and sometimes pasture—agroforestry delivers cash income, subsistence products like fruits and fuelwood, and reduces reliance on single crops, enhancing farmers' resilience to climate change and market volatility. It also absorbs carbon, supports biodiversity, and alleviates pressure on natural forests by supplying forest products and maintaining soil fertility.
Smallholders in tropical forest frontier areas adopt agroforestry and deforestation-free agriculture, providing resilient livelihoods.
Our approach is centered on smallholders in forest frontier landscapes, emphasizing knowledge sharing and collaborative learning. It is built around four key components:
Until recently little was known about how growing trees in coffee plantations in Viet Nam might affect the economic and environmental performance of the plantations. In 2023, however, TBI, together with Tây Nguyên University and experts from the Dutch start-up, FarmTree BV, used the Farm Tree tool to estimate the costs and benefits of three agroforestry farms.
Despite efforts to promote agroforestry in the cocoa sector in West Africa, farmers have been slow to adopt it. In light of its benefits — sustainability, increased resilience of farmer livelihoods, and contribution to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation — several private companies have committed to promoting agroforestry in the cocoa sector.
This article emphasizes the need for collaborative efforts to scale and promote agroforestry practices in Indonesia. It presents a policy brief that highlights promising solution pathways to overcome the challenges and seize the benefits, inviting stakeholders to contribute to and unlock the full potential of agroforestry, ultimately benefiting communities and ecosystems across Indonesia.
In Dak Lak, Viet Nam, within the context of the Working Landscapes programme funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tropenbos Viet Nam and Tropenbos International have collaborated with FarmTree and Tây Nguyên University (TNU) to offer scientific evidence on the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of coffee agroforestry systems versus conventional monocrop systems. This valuable information is a stepping stone for Tropenbos Viet Nam to engage with relevant stakeholders and policymakers, aiming to integrate agroforestry into the national Payments for Environmental Services (PES) policies.
Tropenbos Indonesia’s initiatives in the Simpang Dua subdistrict are yielding promising outcomes for indigenous farmers. Through strategic training and collaboration, farmers are enhancing the quality of their rubber produce, resulting in increased remuneration. Additionally, as part of MoMo4C, the careful management of their agroforests is fostering diversified income streams, which is expected to act as a safeguard for farmers during periods of low rubber prices.
Why do many farmers still resist adopting and scaling agroforestry? Are the economic benefits not enough, or not perceived to be enough? Or are there other reasons? These are the questions that were asked when work began on Tropical Forest Issues 62.
In Ghana, cocoa is traditionally grown in agroforestry systems, but over time farmers increasingly switched to monocultures, with negative effects on long-term production levels and farmers’ resilience. We have supported cocoa farmers to bring back trees into their farms.
Many farmers in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, have been converting rubber agroforests to monoculture oil palm plantations, decreasing diversity in the landscape. We want to reverse this trend, by making rubber agroforestry attractive again. What have we done and learned?
Expansion of coffee monocultures on the slopes of the Srepok River Basin in Viet Nam has resulted in severe land degradation. As part of the Working Landscapes programme, we have been supporting coffee agroforestry to restore these lands and increase smallholders’ resilience.
Before the advent of oil palm plantations in Kalangala islands on Lake Victoria, subsistence agriculture and fishing were the dominant economic activities. However, oil palm plantation monoculture is now the leading economic activity and has resulted in vegetation and land use changes. The oil palm plantations came with many wide ranging negative impacts from deforestation, land grabbing, shift in the agricultural systems, food insecurity to loss of livelihoods among others. This video highlights lessons from Kalangala to raise awareness of the negative impacts of oil palm plantations, so that investors and communities make better informed decisions in the future.
In this short video we present how the villagers of Laman Satong in West Kalimantan prevented their forest from being converted into an oil palm plantation by applying for a village forest permit. But they did not ban oil palm completely.