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Agroforestry Standards for Regenerative Agriculture, By Andrew Williams,…

- - - - Holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs, which is accomplished by using agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials.
    - - Optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.
      - Ensure products are: free from genetic modification; grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides; processed without food additives or ionizing radiation; raised without growth hormones and antibiotics.
  - - - Holistic approach to agriculture that focuses on the interconnection of farming systems and ecological systems as a whole, and seeks to rehabilitate and enhance them by placing a heavy premium on soil health, water management and more.
    - - Contribute to building soils along with soil fertility and health.
      - Increase water percolation, water retention, and clean and safe water runoff.
      - Enhance and conserve biodiversity.
      - Provide the capacity for self-renewal and resiliency.
      - Sequester carbon.
  - - - The intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits. In this paper, “agroforestry system” refers to systems that fall within the USDA definition of agroforestry, while “agroforestry practice” refers to specific and recognized applications of agroforestry.
    - - Produce a diversity and multi-layer of food.
      - Conserve resources of land.
      - Restore ecology of land.
- - - - Practice of planting single or multiple rows of trees with cultivated crops in the alleys between the tree rows. (Also called intercropping [USDA2])
    - - Reduces runoff; reduces water erosion; improve nutrient efficiency; sequester carbon; increase biodiversity; improve whole-farm yields (USDA2); versatile (USDA2)
    - - Planting tree rows along the contour of the land. A livestock producer might grow crops that supply fodder, bedding, or mast crops for their livestock (USDA2)
    - - Beneficial interactions occur between complementary plant species and plant types when grown together.
  - - - Practice of cultivating high-value, shade-tolerant specialty crops under the protection of a forest managed to provide a favorable microclimate for understory crops.
    - - Is established by selectively thinning an existing woodland or plantation to manage the conditions for understory crops or by adding a new layer to the structure of an existing system.
    - - Diversifies income opportunities; improves management of forest resources; increases biological activity; provide valuable ecosystem services; protects forests from clearing; makes available for harvest high value plants that can no longer be found within their historic native range due to wild harvesting not being allowed in public land (USDA2)
    - - Forests that will provide food, botanicals, decoratives, and handicrafts.
  - - - Strips of permanent vegetation consisting of trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses that are planted and managed together, adjacent to waterways and water bodies.
    - - Buffers water bodies from potential negative impacts of surrounding cropland or pasture.
    - - Reduces soil erosion and runoff of sediments and nutrients; stabilizes banks; improves water quality; increases biodiversity; provide perennial crop (other source of revenue); supported by state and federal programs($)(USDA2); producing income from farmland that is frequently flooded or has poor yields (USDA2); diversifying landowner income (USDA2)
  - - - Practice that combines trees with forage and livestock production.
    - - Is established by planting tree species on pastureland or thinning and managing existing forestland to establish forage crops and accommodate grazing of livestock. Trees and pasture are managed as a single integrated system actively used to graze livestock.
    - - Diversifies income opportunities; provides the security of mid- to long-term revenue from tree crops; shades livestock from direct sunlight; protects livestock from the wind of cold weather; improved plant nutrition uptake (USDA2); high value woodland products from active limb management (USDA2); increase wildlife diversity (USDA2); improve water quality (USDA2)
    - - Graze chickens through an apple orchard.
  - - - The intentional planting of trees and/or shrubs as barriers.
    - - Decreases the speed and impact from winds to protect a specific area downwind, thereby creating a different microclimate.
    - - On cropland: reduces wind erosion; improves growth and yield performance; protects plants from wind damage; increases water availability by reducing evaporation; spread snow evenly across a field = increase spring soil moisture (USDA2)
      - On pastureland; reduces animal stress and mortality due to extreme heat and cold; reduces visual impacts; reduces odors.
      - On both: controls blowing and drifting snow; produce food, fodder, fiber, timber and habitat for pollinator and predatory insects (specific species selection); carbon storage (USDA2)
- - - - Certification itself cannot be taken as direct evidence of conservation effectiveness.
    - - Effectiveness of the certification is limited by the robustness of the accompanying monitoring of the prescribed standards.