Digital tools to boost agroforestry: meet DigitAF

The European Forest Institute (EFI), a partner of CircHive, interviewed Senior Researcher Michael den Herder to discuss how the Horizon Europe project DigitAF supports biodiversity objectives for companies, businesses, and cities. Here is the interview: 

What is DigitAF? 

DigitAF is a Horizon Europe project aiming to achieve high-quality implementation of agroforestry systems. The goal is to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, as well as the sustainable management of natural resources. Policymakers, practitioners, and other value chain actors can use online tools to fulfil their needs. 

What can companies, investors and cities gain from this project? 

To address stakeholders’ needs, a compilation of open-source data relevant to agroforestry was compiled in the DigitAF “Data Catalogue”, making it easier to access. A FAIRness score is available for each resource to enable an assessment preview of the ease of their findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability. 

The online data catalogue contains datasets related to a variety of topics, including suitable tree species, tree and crop growth, agroforestry management, soil, climate, land use and land cover, natural vegetation and tree cover, erosion susceptibility, biodiversity, wetness, and nutrient loads. 

The catalogue is part of the DigitAF Virtual Space, which provides a rich source of data, tools, and other information for agroforestry tool users, tool designers, testers, researchers, and practitioners. Many agroforestry stakeholders can find a different purpose for the knowledge available in the virtual space. 

How does DigitAF contribute to biodiversity or wider ecosystem services? 

Stakeholders in the value chain (e.g., wholesalers, retailers, organisations that trade in the carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits of agroforestry, and consumers) may be interested in the environmental impacts or benefits of the agroforestry products they sell or buy. 

The data catalogue contains several datasets with important information related to biodiversity. For instance, the “Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)” and “Observation.org” are large data platforms that contain data on species diversity, occurrence and abundance across the entire globe. “iNaturalist” also contains data on species occurrence based on citizen science. “The Conservation Evidence database” contains references to scientific evidence on the effectiveness of conservation measures for improving biodiversity, including many applied in agriculture. 

Datasets like this include valuable information on species that could be used, for instance, in the development of a possible system for Nature Credits. 

In addition, practitioners may also find the data catalogue useful. They play an active role in designing and managing agroforestry systems, and these decisions have an impact on the agronomic, economic, environmental, and social performance at the farm level and beyond. 

Therefore, practitioners need information to inform decisions related directly to the management of their farm, or, in the case of farm advisors, to advise farmers based on the most up-to-date knowledge. For instance, crop yields and suitable tree species, as well as issues related to farm management, such as erosion, soil health, nutrition, water availability, and wetness, would be relevant. 

Policy actors (policymakers, decision-makers, and administrations) are likely to be most concerned with agroforestry-related regulations and possible social, economic and environmental impacts of agroforestry at regional, national and European levels. They would need reliable information on many issues, including food security and safety, land use, climate, biodiversity, finance, economics, and human and animal well-being. 

An open catalogue 

Many of these topics are covered in the data catalogue and other tools available in the DigitAF Virtual Space. 

Users can actively contribute to datasets and tools by pressing the “Contribute” button.

Hopefully, the use of currently available digital technologies will become easier and more widespread, helping farmers, policymakers, and producers make the farming sector more sustainable and support the adoption of Agroforestry for People, Planet, and Profit.

_{Featured image: AGFORWARD Project / Flickr}