ReForest Project: Novel Solutions for Food Production, Carbon Capture, and Biodiversity Enhancement

REFOREST (Agroforestry at the forefront of farming sustainability in multifunctional landscapes in Europe), a Horizon Europe project funded under EU’s Land, ocean and water for climate Action, aims to promote agroforestry as a land use type allowing food production while maintaining ecological sustainability.

The principles underlying REFOREST are those of innovation, knowledge exchange and creating novel solutions to empower farmers in Europe and associated countries to deliver on multiple objectives: food production, carbon capture, and biodiversity development.

“We know that agroforestry is a very good alternative to modern agricultural monocultures, our project aims to facilitate its adoption in Europe.“

Martin Lukáč, REFOREST coordinator

Bringing together 14 partners from 10 European countries with multidisciplinary expertise, REFOREST has the fundamental aim to use existing knowledge of temperate agroforestry systems to co-create solutions to key barriers that hinder wider adoption of this land use type by farmers in the EU and associated countries. The strategic objective is to enhance agroforestry and the sustainability of food production by internalising the value of carbon and biodiversity in farming business models. The project will use an open science approach to represent the real-world ecological, economic and social potential and limitations of agroforestry within decision-making, verification, and financial support tools.