Agroforestry, carbon farming and the sustainable use of water resources

Policy Briefing 64-v1 explores the interaction between agroforestry and the EU´s sustainability and water policy resilience goals. It emphasizes the role of a mosaic tree-cover in sustainable water management, and the importance of agricultural trees in enhancing soil water infiltration, reducing runoff on slopes, and increasing water quantity in streams. It discusses evapotranspiration, and meso-scale recycling of evaporated water from agroforestry and forestry, and suggests that mosaic tree-cover is probably the optimum for groundwater recharge at a catchment scale. Literature on water dynamics is examined for both silvopastoral and silvoarable systems. The importance of increasing the role of agroforestry on the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the Water Framework Directive and the new Water Resilience Strategy is stressed. A structure for a Water Resources Plan is provided for projects focusing on water resources, and criteria for demonstrating "no significant harm" is given for projects where water resources are a secondary issue.