Agroforestry Systems for Ecological Restoration how to reconcile conservation and productions options for Brazil's Cerrado and Caatinga biomes

Brazil is a country in environmental crisis, the epitome of which are the fires raging across the Amazon, forcing us to ask - is there a tipping point for the lungs of the world after which we will never be able to recover them? This book, Agroforestry systems for Ecological Restoration could not, therefore, have been published at a more opportune time. It focuses on two of Brazil’s other very threatened biomes: the Cerrado, which is also subject to widespread burning and 50% of which has been decimated by the industrial production of soy, maize and other crops; and the Caatinga, a dry and historically impoverished region, which has far fewer protected areas than the Amazon or Cerrado but a very high level of endemism (many unique species not found elsewhere).Led by Andrew Miccolis of World Agroforestry with researchers at EMBRAPA (the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), Brazil’s Institute for Society, Population and Nature, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the book’s key tenet is that human activity is not necessarily detrimental to the environment but can be beneficial, generating more life and resources. The book’s subtitle is ‘How to reconcile production with conservation’.It describes in detail how agroforestry can restore altered and damaged land so that it can again offer social and economic benefits to people and sustain nature. Agroforestry is the deliberate integration of trees, crops and often livestock on the same piece of land for multiple goods and services. The book outlines 11 agroforestry systems and addresses common contexts, such as degraded pastures and places with native vegetation is returning.The book describes ecological restoration methods such as: assisted natural regeneration; mechanized planting of native seeds with adapted farm machines; planting of seedlings, with monitoring, control of insects and weeds, and the removal of disruption; and successional agroforestry with a great diversity of native and/or exotic species. The aim is always to promote agrobiodiversity, rely on native plants as much as possible, and be guided by local people. The guidebook is geared mainly to family farmers, but will be useful to larger landholders. It has relevance beyond the Cerrado and Caatinga to the Amazon rainforest and other areas of Latin America. It is an essential tool at this time of crisis that includes climate breakdown.

Publication Details

• Publisher: World Agroforestry
• ISBN-10: 9966108319
• ISBN-13: 978-9966-108-31-9
• Dewey Decimal: 634.99
• ECHO Library: 634.99 MIC