Quebec policy context and agroforestry practice: State of play

In Quebec (Canada), there is no comprehensive policy governing the practice of agroforestry. Paradoxically, public policy instruments that impact on the deployment of agroforestry practices in the field are many. Embedded in a political and regulatory environment that is both vague, complex and changing, they are often poorly known to foresters, farmers and stakeholders. This paper offers an overview of the influence of public policy instruments on windbreaks, wooded buffer strips, agroforestry systems, fruit and nut tree systems, silvopastoral systems and crops under woody cover. The comprehensive policy review of has identified nine instruments that foster either directly or indirectly the implementation of these systems, their maintenance and harvesting of their products and six instruments limiting the deployment of agroforestry. The analysis of the consequences of introducing trees in a crop field and field crops in woodland on the provision of agricultural and forestry subsidies has revealed that these consequences are relatively minor. Overall, the political and regulatory environment proves unsuited to the particularities of agroforestry systems. Adjustments to current programs appear necessary in order to render the political environment more conducive to the development of these systems.