Agroforestry för svenska förhållanden 2024 - Flipbook - Page 52
requirements in detail; for more information, see
the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s website.
What happened to the forest land?
Only the farmer’s prior knowledge, creativity and
resources limit the outcome, which enables a more
diverse landscape in the future with different agroforestry systems.
Financial support for silvopastoral systems
Fortunately, there are environmental subsidies for
several silvopastoral systems, including forest grazing, pastoral farming and natural grazing. However,
there are specific requirements that determine
exactly what type of land qualifies for the financial
support, which means that it is not possible for everyone to apply. For instance, forest grazing grants
are not eligible for forest land with even-aged trees,
which excludes a large proportion of forest land
[38]. Therefore, it is important to read through the
Agroforestry is almost exclusively associated with
cultivation on agricultural land. We would like to
emphasise that agroforestry is much broader than
that and also includes food production on forest
land. Given the narrow division between agriculture and forestry, the regulations for cultivation and
animal husbandry are so far different on forest land,
as the primary purpose of the forest has been to
increase the timber supply or for nature conservation [31, 39].
In contrast, forest owners can plant whatever they
want on their forest land, except for invasive or
alien species [31, 40]. To create favourable light
conditions for food crops, measures such as thinning or cutting down competing trees may be necessary [26]. This is where it gets tricky! No more
than 0.5 hectares of forest may be felled, in which
case new timber-producing trees must be replanted
by planting, sowing or natural regeneration (usually
only spruce/pine/aspen species are allowed for
such regeneration) [41].
Får gillar bokollon. Skogbete på Stenshuvuds
nationalpark, Österlen. Betesdjuren hjälper till att
hålla landskapet öppet och bidrar på så vis till
platsens unika biologiska mångfald. / Sheep like
beechnuts. Forest grazing at Stenshuvud National
Park, Österlen. The grazing animals help keep the
landscape open and thus contribute to the unique
biodiversity of the site.
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