Trees on farms in industrialised countries : silvicultural, environmental and economic issues
2000
Auclair, Daniel | Prinsley, Roslyn | Davis, Sharon
In industrialised regions, there is at present a trend towards a reduction of the areas devoted to intensive agricultural landuse. Many farmers maintain trees on their properties, while others innovate, by updating traditional agroforestry techniques. One main difference between silvicultural management of small- or large-scale forestry and farm forestry is the presence of a farm (and tree) manager within the system, available for supervising and tending the trees, due to differences in time scales between agricultural and forestry components. Trees are often considered by the general public as a panacea for reducing the adverse effects of industrial development, and even in the scientific literature, the virtues of agroforestry are often described with little reliable scientific background. However a number of well documented scientific studies show the ability of trees to enhance the environmental value of an area. The contribution of trees and agroforestry systems to sustainable management of the natural resource base has been widely proven, in particular to combat widespread land degradation including salinity, soil erosion, soil acidification and soil structure degradation. Despite the difficulties faced when studying the economics of trees on farms, due to the self-consumption of woody products, and to the difficulty in studying the non-commercial value of environmental benefits, many farmers adopt agroforestry for motivations other than financial or direct environmental benefits, such as the social and cultural value of trees within a landscape. (Résumé d'auteur)
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