Silvopasture policy promotion in European Mediterranean areas

Abstract

Silvopasture is the deliberate integration of a woody component with grazed pastures as understorey. It is one of the most extended agroforestry practices all over the world. Silvopasture use is key to increase the sustainability of livestock farming systems as silvopasture reduces the use of concentrates since the woody component provides feed for animals. However, it is not an extensively used practice in Europe. This paper aims at evaluating, from Eurostat, LUCAS database and the 118 rural development programs, the current situation of permanent grasslands in the Mediterranean area of Europe as well as the rural development programmes fostering silvopasture to better understand how sustainable land use systems are promoted and provide insights to foster silvopasture across Europe. The results of this study show that most of the policy measures related to silvopasture are adapted to the local necessity. The already existing agroforestry managed land (dehesas/montado) are related to measures supporting regeneration and maintenance while in those areas where agroforestry does not exist the measures are related to forest fire prevention.

Agroforestry and the environment

“…Last but not least, policy can play an important role to support or suppress agroforestry sustainability and environmental soundness. As Santiago-Freijanes et al (2021) and Rodríguez-Rigueiro et al (2021) mention, agroforestry, even if it is a worldwide recognized sustainable land management system, it has not yet seen a large-scale adoption neither in temperate nor in developed countries. Agroforestry promotion, at least at European level, is of high importance and policy decisions can play an important role in this.…”

Global Evolution of Research on Silvopastoral Systems through Bibliometric Analysis: Insights from Ecuador

“…In Europe, Spain leads scientific production in this field, contributing publications focused on the promotion of silvopastoral policies in European Mediterranean areas [75]. The potential of trees and the climate to regulate soil carbon balance was also evaluated [76].…”

Tree–Crop Ecological and Physiological Interactions Within Climate Change Contexts: A Mini-Review

“…Among the several types of multispecies systems, the combination of woody plants and herbaceous crops, often together with domesticated or semi-wild animals, in a range of temporal and spatial arrangements are defined as agroforestry systems (Mosquera-Losada et al, 2018). Agroforestry systems have a long tradition in tropical and Mediterranean regions (Jose, 2009;Mosquera-Losada et al, 2018;Rodríguez-Rigueiro et al, 2021). In the Mediterranean, the characteristic agroforestry systems include the oak agroforests (Portugal and Spain), agrosilvopasture mosaics (Italy), and the Valonian oak silvopastures (Greece) (Moreno et al, 2018).…”

“…Several authors emphasized the pivotal role of agroforestry systems in biodiversity conservation (Mcneely and Schroth, 2006;Vodouhe et al, 2011;Montagnini, 2017;Mosquera-Losada et al, 2018Udawatta et al, 2019;Dagar and Gupta, 2020;Rosati et al, 2020), carbon sequestration (Montagnini and Nair, 2004;Mosquera-Losada et al, 2015, 2017Ferreiro-Domínguez et al, 2016;De Stefano and Jacobson, 2018;Udawatta et al, 2019;Dagar and Gupta, 2020), restoration of degraded ecosystems (Navas and Silva, 2016;Dagar and Gupta, 2020), and in the mitigation of climate change impacts (Lin, 2007;Bayala et al, 2008;Fernández-Núñez et al, 2010;Montagnini, 2017;Mosquera-Losada et al, 2017De Stefano and Jacobson, 2018) by amending microclimates (Gomes et al, 2020). Agroforestry systems are also critical for rural development in lowincome regions (Montagnini, 2017;Rodríguez-Rigueiro et al, 2021) by providing determinant ecosystem services such as soil fertility enhancement, prevention of soil erosion, water, wind, and pest regulation, and pollination (Rigueiro-Rodríguez et al, 2009;Kuyah et al, 2017). In this sense, mixing crops and tree species is an excellent way to increase crop yield and yield stability, especially within adverse climatic conditions (Sileshi et al, 2012;Nasielski et al, 2015).…”