Agroforestry in the Netherlands
Photo: A Oosterbaan & ATKuiters
Anne Oosterbaan and Loek Kuiters have summarized the agroforestry situation in the Netherlands in the Springer book ‘Agroforestry in Europe’. They advocate agroforestry as a multi-purpose system to produce attractive landscapes, biodiversity, fruits, timber, bark and twigs, crops, recreation and other products like honey.
Whilst farming originally migrated from the forest, a high rate of cultivation led to almost complete degradation of Dutch forests. To conserve what remains it was necessary with the Forest Law in 1938 to prohibit grazing within them. However, in from the early 80s grazing has been permitted in a controlled manner. One agroforestry system, which existed for a long period in the Netherlands, was growing high-branching fruit trees (boguards) with an underlayer of grass, which was either mowed or grazed by cows and sheep. Recently there has been an increased interest in combining trees as multipurpose natural elements with agricultural activities. Research and demonstration projects have been established in different parts of the Netherlands, with walnut being the most widely planted trees species. Density varies between 25 and 100 trees per ha. Understorey vegetation is mostly grass, which is grazed by sheep, cows or horses/ponies or is mowed and made into silage. Other combinations of tree species with understorey are being explored. Different models for assessing financial consequences have been developed, and some research carried out regarding the attitude of farmers to agroforestry. Farmers from different regions had different attitudes: those closer to urban areas seemed to favour agroforestry, while those in less densely populated areas were unconvinced.
