A general classification of agroforestry practice |
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Authors: | Fergus L Sinclair |
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Institution: | (1) School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK; E-mail |
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Abstract: | Present classification schemes confuse agroforestry practices, where trees are intimately associated with agricultural components
at a field scale, with the whole farm and forest systems of which they form a part. In fact, it is common for farming systems
to involve the integration of several reasonably discrete agroforestry practices, on different types of land. The purpose
of a general classification is to identify different types of agroforestry and to group those that are similar, thereby facilitating
communication and the organized storage of information. A new scheme is proposed that uses the ‘practice’ rather than the
‘system’ as the unit of classification. This allows an efficient grouping of practices that have a similar underlying ecology
and prospects for management. A two stage definition of agroforestry is proposed that distinguishes an interdisciplinary approach
to land use from a set of integrated land use practices. Four levels of organization are recognized through analysis of the
role of trees in agricultural landscapes: the land use system, categories of land use within systems, discrete groups of components
(trees, crops, animals) managed together, and functionally connected groups of such discrete practices in time and space.
Precedents for this form of analysis are found in the literature and it conforms with generally accepted methods of systems
analysis. Classification of major types of agroforestry practice proceeds primarily according to the components involved and
the predominant usage of land. A secondary scheme further classifies these in terms of the arrangement, density and diversity
of the tree components involved.
This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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