Trees as inspiration for collaborative CAP talk.

Woods exemplify problems and potential of European farming

Rural topic(s): Agroecology and agroforestry

Type: Réflexions de membres du FS ou d’autres acteurs locaux

Date of writing: September 13, 2012

Author(s) of the proposal: Alain Canet

Context:

By allowing self-seeding, native trees to grow in uncultivated bands alongside water courses, zones required to be left fallow under existing Common Agriculture Policy rules. Farmers and those around them would gain multiple benefits. Such practices, combined with the principles of agro-forestry and the re-planting of previously grubbed up native species hedges to delineate smaller fields, would help restore local biodiversity and soil fertility while mitigating many of the other problems brought about by modern agricultural practices.

Text:

Trees as inspiration for collaborative CAP talk. Woods exemplify problems and potential of European farming

Trees as inspiration for collaborative CAP talk... por ForumSynergies

Current practice sees such areas periodically mown to prevent weed growth, destroying tree seedlings that could in time provide shade for stock animals as well as improved soil fertility and organic content, water retention and surface soil protection. They would also play a role in capturing carbon, locally and cheaply.

The cheap and simple techniques mentionned above are habitually ignored or discounted by the different parties involved in establishing farm policy and practice. Producers question what benefits they will bring while environmentalists pushing for more radical or wholesale changes.

Arbre & Paysage 32 sees the conflicts between and within different parties as self-defeating. It sets itself the goal of fostering dialogue, trust and collaboration between groups that often have little of either. It argues that the issues surrounding tree husbandry, and their treatment, as offering a template for finding wholesale, integrated solutions to European farm questions.

Notes:

Author visit on September 5, 2012 that included extended conversation, questioning and video interviews in the context of the Sustainable Mystery Tour 2012.