AGROFORESTRY

The concept of resilience has come to the fore in recent times, not least in relation to climate change and its effect on agroecosystems that are vital to food production and food security.

Globally, agroforestry is considered an important land management practice for landscape restoration (UN Decade on EcosystemRestoration 2021-2030).

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change puts forward the target of 10% of arable land to be under agroforestry management, and the Government’s Environmental Land Management (ELMS) and other schemes are also targeting the increase of trees outside woodlands across the country.

Having been founded in 1994, Wakelyns is one of few established agroforestry sites in Europe….. and you don’t need to be a genius to know that it takes a long time for trees to grow!

Wakelyns has a long history of collaboration with the Organic Research Centre (ORC) and most recently was part of the Horizon 2020 project AGROMIX, which explored agro-ecological solutions for building resilience in farm systems through agroforestry (and other mixed farming approaches).  Wakelyns was one of eight experimental farms across Europe in the study.

This is just one example of Wakelyns involvement in groundbreaking research.

Having the chance to join the Wakelyns team therefore was an opportunity not to be missed!

We believe that raising awareness through community involvement, will help us move towards practical solutions, in transitioning towards these alternative land use systems for the benefit of all.

SHORT SUPPLY CHAINS

In addition to the abundance of all of the environmental and social benefits from operating within an agroforestry farming landscape, we also wish to support and endorse short supply chains…..another advocation of Wakelyns of course!

Short food chains are an alternative to long globalised food chains and have been proven to play an increasingly important role in food supply networks.

It’s well proven that short supply chains can increase food supply resilience and increase sustainability in all it’s dimensions!