18th North American Agroforestry Conference (NAAC)
SHARING RESEARCH & BEST PRACTICES BETWEEN TEMPERATE & TROPICAL AGROFORESTRY
20-22 February 2024, CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica
About the Event
The Association for Temperate Agroforestry (AFTA) convenes the North American Agroforestry Conference (NAAC) biennially to continually enrich our understanding of research and development outcomes within temperate agroforestry production systems. In our upcoming conference, AFTA is excited to foster a robust exchange of insights, approaches, methodologies, and findings with esteemed centers, experts, and practitioners from the vibrant field of tropical agroforestry in Latin American and Caribbean nations. We anticipate that the valuable lessons derived from tropical agroforestry will find practical applications within the realm of North American temperate agroforestry, and vice versa. CATIE will be host of the conference.
CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) is an academic center for innovation and sustainable development in topics related to agriculture, management, conservation, and sustainable use of natural resources. Our area of influence, by mandate, is the Latin American and Caribbean region. However, our operations and contributions to the region and the world have a history of just over 75 years, initially as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and since 1973, as CATIE. In our actions we combine education, research for development, and projection to promote Inclusive Green Development, to increase human well-being and reduce rural poverty.
Conference Objectives
Promote Understanding: Share findings showcasing the significant contributions of both temperate and tropical agroforestry systems towards enhancing food security, landscape restoration, and the provision of essential ecosystem services. These encompass diverse production facets such as food crops, meat and milk production, coffee and cocoa cultivation, fruit production, timber harvesting, and honey production, as well as the regulation of vital processes such as carbon sequestration, water management, soil fertility, and pest control. Additionally, we will explore support services like primary production and pollination, alongside habitat services addressing connectivity and restoration efforts.
Knowledge Exchange: Facilitate the exchange of proven approaches and methodologies for the comprehensive assessment and management of tropical and temperate agroforestry systems. This will encompass sustaining the food supply chain, fortifying ecosystem service provisioning, and conducting economic analyses incorporating benefits, costs, and associated risks. These evaluations will span the spectrum from individual farm-level considerations to landscape-level perspectives.
Field Insights: Offer a unique opportunity to temperate agroforestry scientists, technicians, and students to gain firsthand exposure to the key attributes, encompassing structure, composition, and management, of tropical agroforestry systems. This will be achieved through engaging field visits.
Knowledge Dissemination: Generate and effectively communicate findings and their implications among decision-makers, farm managers, academia, and peers. This effort aims to promote the integration of agroforestry into the development agenda across the Americas.
Fostering Collaboration: Cultivate potential alliances and research networks, facilitating enhanced collaboration between temperate researchers and their counterparts in tropical regions. These collaborative endeavors will drive forward the research and experimentation agenda.
Our conference acknowledges the significance of open dialogue and the imperative for knowledge generation and data management to collectively validate new research findings, innovative tools, and practices pertaining to relevant land uses, agroforestry systems, and collaborative platforms. Additionally, we will delve into topics like governance and climate funding, exploring avenues to bolster agroforestry adoption. Join us in this intellectual endeavor as we collectively advance the field of agroforestry.
Sponsored by
Join us at the North American Agroforestry Conference (NAAC), where we’ll explore the latest findings and research methodologies in temperate and tropical agroforestry. This event aims to foster knowledge sharing for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services in America and the Caribbean.
Contact
Rolando Cerda
📩 rcerda@catie.ac.cr
Claudia Sepúlveda
📩 csepul@catie.ac.cr