Innovations in temperate agroforestry: the 13th North American Agroforestry Conference

The content of this Special Issue of Agroforestry Systems was developed from presentations at the 13th biennial North American Agroforestry Conference (NAAC) of the Association for Temperate Agroforestry (AFTA), held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada on June 19-21, 2013. The conference attracted over 100 participants and included 2 days of plenary, concurrent and poster presentations. The eleven manuscripts in this Special Issue derive from recent temperate agroforestry research projects in North America that were presented at the conference and also include one manuscript from Germany. Overall, the manuscripts reflect the diversity of agroforestry practices throughout North America and its multi-disciplinary nature, including socioeconomic as well as biophysical studies. The conference marked a new stage in the development of temperate agroforestry, as members of the newly formed European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF) actively participated in it. The development of closer ties and collaborative projects between European and North American agroforesters bodes well for the advancement of temperate agroforestry in these two regions.