Forests provide a wealth of benefits for agriculture. Beyond their well-known role in storing carbon and conserving biodiversity, forests and trees also help improve crop productivity, strengthen climate resilience, and enhance rural well-being. Yet, these benefits remain underexplored in global policy and development frameworks, which often treat forest conservation and agricultural production as opposing, mutually exclusive goals.
The new FAO report, “Climate and Ecosystem Service Benefits of Forests and Trees for Agriculture” , explores how harnessing the full potential of forests and trees for agriculture is vital given the increasing need to adapt to climate change requiring integrated landscape approaches that work for both farmers and ecosystems. Developed in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Conservation International (CI), brings together over 40 authors from 25 institutions to provide new quantitative evidence on how forests’ cooling and water-regulating functions boost crop productivity and safeguard farm workers’ health across diverse regions.
More information here.