World Agroforestry Centre salutes first UN International Day of Forests

o mark the first annual International Day of Forests, researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) say that trees on farms and outside of forests are important to the survival of major rainforests like those in the Amazon and Congo Basin. Trees provide valuable environmental services regardless of where they grow, and researchers are now embracing the many ways they help stabilize and improve the productivity of farms of all sizes.

Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, pointed out the tension between the need for more arable land to meet the world’s growing demand for food, and maintaining the diversity of the world’s forests. A large part of the solution, he says, can be found through a diverse set of agroforestry practices—planting trees inside and on the edges of cropland.

“Almost half of the world’s farmland now has more than ten percent tree cover,” Simons noted. “As the practice of agroforestry spreads, smallholder farmers—who will be expected to feed most of the nine billion people in the world by 2050—will do so more sustainably.”