2 June 2015

Dr Tibor Hartel, who is leading the AGFORWARD Wood Pasture Stakeholder Group in Romania, met Prince Charles on 2 June 2015.

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18-19 May 2015

Woodfuel from Agroforestry Conference in UK

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28 April 2015

Preliminary stratification and quantification of agroforestry in Europe

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20-21 March 2015

Trees in Agriculture: agroforestry at the heart of current issues

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20 March 2015

"Acorns are not just for pigs"

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27 February 2015

AGFORWARD Progress Report

A Progress Report on the first year (January to December 2014) of the AGFORWARD project was submitted to the European Commission on 27 February 2015. On 17 July 2015, the project received confirmation that the report has been approved.

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15 February 2015

New on-line map of European agroforestry research and demonstration

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15 January 2015

New report on how agroforestry in Mediterranean Partner Countries can inform the development of agroforestry practices in Europe.

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3 December 2014

In the AGFORWARD project, one of the stakeholder groups is focusing on the hedgerow systems of Brittany in France. Rosa Mosquera-Losado (University of Compostela de Santiago) and Jabier Ruiz-Mirazo (European Agroforestry Federation) have also been reviewing recent European Union support for agroforestry with a focus on hedgerows. In this item, they describe some of the initial findings.

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25 October 2014

Red Polls grazing at Epping

Celebrating Acorns: Anastasia Pantera, an AGFORWARD researcher, attended the valonia oak and acorn festival in the village of Korissia on the Greek island of Kea (Tzia) on 25 October 2014. She was invited by Marcie Mayer from the “Hamada Acorn Initiative”.

The disperse valonia oak stands on the island are used in a range of traditional agroforestry systems. One of the key products from the valonia oak (Quercus ithaburensis) trees is Χαμάδα (pronounced Hamada), which is the Kean (Tziotiko) word for the giant acorn caps. These are collected annually and sold to leather tanneries across Europe. In 2014, 35 tonnes of acorn caps were collected.

During the valonia oak and acorn festival, Anastasia had the opportunity to talk about agroforestry. In fact two participants are working with the AGFORWARD group focused on valonia oak systems. There is strong local knowledge about management practices for valonia oaks such as the collection of “Hamada”. The festival includes traditional music, the drinking of tsipouro and the consumption of acorn cookies. There were races to separate the acorns from the cups, and opportunities to create colourful acorn cup ornaments. There was even a treasure hunt where everyone searched for a “golden” acorn. Young and old had the opportunity to enjoy, sing and dance many traditional songs throughout the event.

Maybe the biggest event of the day was the “Largest acorn contest”. Unfortunately Anastasia’s entry did not win, but she was happy that valonia oak was being used for much more than just firewood!

The search for the heaviest acorn

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2 October 2014

Red Polls grazing at Epping

Participatory plant breeding for cultivars adapted to shade.

Modern wheat varieties have been selected under monoculture conditions, and hence they may not be varieties most appropriate for use in silvoarable agroforestry where the wheat grows under the shade of trees. Using shade tolerant varieties might increase the benefits that can be gained from agroforestry, increasing the efficiency of this system. Hence research is being undertaken, as part of a French stakeholder group in AGFORWARD, on the breeding and selection of wheat varieties adapted to agroforestry conditions in a Mediterranean climate.

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23 September 2014

Red Polls grazing at Epping

The first stakeholder meeting for the UK Wood Pasture and Parkland Stakeholder Group took place at Epping Forest on the edge of Greater London. The meeting was organized by Dr Matt Upson (Cranfield University) and hosted by Dr Jeremy Dagley (Head of Conservation, Epping Forest).

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25 August 2014

The University of Santiago de Compostela held its first stakeholder meeting at the Estación Científica do Courel (http://www.usc.es/es/servizos/eccourel/) in the ‘O Courel’ area of Galicia in Spain.

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24 July 2014

Participative “Shareshop” in Portugal

As part of the AGFORWARD project, the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (University of Lisbon) held an initial participative “Shareshop” in Portugal with a group of farmers, foresters, landowners, producers associations and public institutions...

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25 June 2014

European Wood-pastures in Transition

AGFORWARD researchers Tobias Plieninger and Tibor Hartel have edited a new book called “European Wood-pastures in Transition: a socio-ecological approach”.

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4-6 June 2014

2nd European Agroforestry Conference

Members of AGFORWARD played a key role in the 2nd European Agroforestry Conference held at Cottbus in Germany on 4-6 June 2014.

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June 2014

meeting in Cottbus

2-3 June 2014.  The first General Assembly Meeting of the AGFORWARD project, held at Cottbus in Germany, was attended by 50 delegates. 

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May 2014

stakeholder meeting in the UK
stakeholder meeting in the UK

The Organic Research Centre held an initial participative workshop in the UK with a group of farmers and other stakeholders interested in woodland poultry production. 

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12 May 2014

stakeholder meeting in the UK
stakeholder meeting in the UK

AGFORWARD researcher João Palma presented a talk on “Modern Agroforestry, Vision, Opportunities and Challenges” at the XV Agrarian Sciences Week.

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April 2014

AGFORWARD researchers: Dirk Freese, Rosa Mosquera Losada and Piero Paris played a key role at the International Farming System Association (IFSA) conference (1-4 April 2014) held at Humboldt University in Berlin...

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10-14 February 2014

Paul Burgess gave a platform presentation entitled “Introducing AGFORWARD – a Project to advance Agroforestry in Europe” at the World Agroforestry Congress held at Delhi in India...

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23 January 2014

Promoting trees in food production...

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21-22 January 2014

The launch of the AGFORWARD project took place at Cranfield University in the UK on 21 and 22 January 2014.

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