Scaling Up Agroforestry for Climate Mitigation

why agroforestry?

Agroforestry systems that  integrate trees with crops and animals are remarkably effective at sequestering carbon, holding water in soils, and protecting habitat. The widespread adoption of agroforestry practices in the United States alone could sequester enough carbon to mitigate more than one-third of the country's net greenhouse gas emissions (Udawatta & Jose, 2012). To address the scale of the global climate crisis, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to putting agroforestry fully to work as a leading natural climate solution.

The Retreat

In June 2022, the Volgenau Climate Initiative, supported by The Volgenau Foundation, convened leaders from nonprofits, farms, businesses, foundations, and government agencies for four days to develop a plan to scale up agroforestry. This retreat focused on two primary objectives: (1) building a deeply bonded and diverse agroforestry community that represents a range of perspectives and programs, and (2) advancing our collective understanding of agroforestry, its opportunities, and the critical steps needed in the coming years. The event achieved significant short-term outcomes, including the formation of the Agroforestry Coalition and leveraging additional funding to accelerate progress on the many initiatives that emerged from the event.

outcomes

The retreat strengthened relationships within the agroforestry network and identified seven strategic areas for cross-sector collaboration, subsequently becoming dedicated working groups. Recognizing the need for ongoing support, retreat participants agreed that the Savanna Institute (SI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Wisconsin, would be an ideal home to incubate the coalition, given its capacity to offer necessary infrastructure. The Volgenau Foundation provided funding for a project manager to facilitate this effort. Many retreat participants joined to lead the seven coalition working groups. In the following months, working group co-chairs collaborated with participants to outline strategies for scaling up the coalition's work.

The strategic objectives identified by the working groups included:

• Communications Working Group: Developing public awareness campaigns and engaging in strategic communications to raise the profile of agroforestry activities led by coalition members and adjacent groups.

• Demonstration Farms Working Group: Supporting demonstration farms to showcase agroforestry practices and collecting information for a US agroforestry demonstration farms database.

• Ecosystem Services Working Group: Building shared understanding about how the ecological benefits of perennial agriculture are measured, interpreted, and communicated, and discussing approaches to carbon measurement.

• Finance Working Group: Growing the quantity and quality of capital invested in agroforestry and engaging finance providers and the broader capital community in a collaborative space.

• Markets Working Group: Growing the market for agroforestry products and supporting agroforestry entrepreneurs by generating ideas for processing infrastructure development and entrepreneurship training programs.

• Nurseries Working Group: Advancing nursery and plant material research, supporting breeders and nursery owners, and designing a mini-grant program to help nurseries experiment with new practices or technologies.

• Policy Working Group: Identifying policy opportunities, educating decision-makers about agroforestry as an effective climate solution, developing and garnering bipartisan support for agroforestry marker bills, and advocating within the USDA to shape new agroforestry technical assistance programs.

By aligning the strategic objectives with these key areas, now formalized as working groups, the Agroforestry Coalition ensured targeted and effective progress in promoting and implementing agroforestry practices across the United States.

“The retreat brought together the right group of committed, thoughtful, action-oriented people to define AF problems and identify long-term strategies and next steps to move them forward. By meeting together, I have developed deep relationships that will support me both in being more effective in my own work and will allow us to move together towards the next steps and solutions more effectively and with more joy.”