Agroforestry as a catalyst for on-farm conservation and diversification

The vision of the first Agroforestry Conference held in Guelph, Canada was “to provide a forum within which people working in temperate North America agroforestry systems could interact and exchange idea”. Agroforestry research has progressed considerably over the last 25 years. The wealth of information generated over the years has helped understand the role that agroforestry can play to achieve production, environmental, economical, and social benefits of adoption of the practice. The aim is to further strengthen our understanding of how temperate agroforestry can be deployed in the landscape as a tool towards sustainable farm management practice. Seventeen manuscripts in this special issue from oral and poster presentations of the 14th North American Agroforestry Conference addressed a wide range of agroforestry topics from promoting agroforestry adoption, production, and marketing; to understanding agroforestry’s role in impacting soil, water quality, climate change mitigation, and species diversity.