On a buffer strip, at the boundary of an arable field, farmer Vincent Blagny is showing us how to pollard naturally established ash trees. Why so? The answers seem obvious: buffer strips can become, for farmers and other users, a productive space providing low cost biomass and biodiversity, fostering sustainable and profitable agricultural development at both farm and landscape level.


Biodiverse, organic farm Herdade dos Lagos
Mértola, Portugal. Photo by Ana Tomás

Ploughing in between 14 year old walnut trees
Domaine de Restinclières, Montpellier, France. Photo by AGROOF

Sweet cherry in combination with vegetables on an organic farm
North Western Switzerland. Photo by Felix Herzog

AFINET meeting in Krakow

Silvoarable agroforestry experiment with poplar and barley
Bedfordshire in 2002, UK, by Paul Burgess.

Wild asparagus in traditional olive orchard at CRA OLI Spoleto, Italy
Photo by Adolfo Rosati

AFINET people planting trees near Brussels
Photo by Joana Amaral Paulo

Authochtonous goat breed (Serpentina) grazing under Holm oak (Quercus rotundifolia)
SouthEast Portugal. by João Palma

Belgium RAIN meeting

Typical landscape of Montado with Holm oak (Quercus rotundifolia)
SouthEast Portugal. by João Palma