Agroforestry - an alternative for reducing greenhouse gases

Planting shelterbelts has been designated as a best management practice by the Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF) Agricultural Awareness Partnership Project. The CCAF was established in 1998 by the federal government to help Canada meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is intended to support early actions to reduce GHG's and to increase understanding of the impact, cost and benefits of implementation and options open to Canada.

Trees and shrubs contribute to balancing the global carbon cycle, and there is no better place than the Canadian Prairies to plant trees for the purpose of reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

Agricultural activities occur on approximately 61 million hectares in Canada. Agroforestry is an intensive land management system that optimizes the benefits created when trees and shrubs are combined with crop and livestock production. These practices can be used to address such environmental issues as water and tillage erosion, soil salinity, desertification, pollution of air and water, loss of wildlife habitat and climate change.

"In agroforestry, combinations of trees, crop, and livestock are intentionally designed and managed as a whole unit," said Laura Poppy, shelterbelt specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFCs) Shelterbelt Centre. The Centre is administered under AAFCs Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA).

"The practices are intensively managed to maintain their productive functions. The biological and physical interaction between the crop and livestock components are manipulated to enhance the agricultural production of the land base. They are structurally and functionally combined into a single integrated management unit."

Potential benefits from properly designed and managed agroforestry practices include increased crop production, improved economic gain, improved soil and water quality, increased biodiversity, reduction of greenhouse gases and carbon sequestration (carbon capture, separation and storage or reuse). As part of an ecologically based land management system, agroforestry can contribute significantly to generating the ecosystem diversity and processes important to long-term sustainability and profitability.

In agroforestry, combinations of trees, crop, and livestock are intentionally designed and managed as a whole unit.

"Shelterbelts which are properly planned provide many benefits to farm families," Poppy continued. "They decrease energy use by reducing the speed of cold winds around farmsteads, control blowing snow, protect livestock, buildings and gardens, and trap snow to replenish dugouts. Shelterbelts also provide diversification opportunities, such as fruit and maple syrup production, as well as the other benefits of habitat for wildlife and reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

The Shelterbelt Centre works in partnership with industry to make Canada the world leader in food safety, environmental stewardship, research and innovation. The CCAF supports the goals of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Agricultural Policy Framework (APF), which puts the necessary programs in place to bring long-term security and sustainability to Canada's agricultural sector.

For more information about shelterbelts or climate change, call Laura Poppy or Tricia Pollock at the AAFC-PFRA Shelterbelt Centre at (306) 695-2284.


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