World Agroforestry Centre

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The World Agroforestry Centre (known as the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, ICRAF before 2002), is an international institute headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, and founded in 1978. The Centre undertakes research in agroforestry-- the practice of integrating trees in agricultural landscapes for economic and ecological benefits. It is one of 15 research centres which makes up the global network known as the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). The Centre conducts research in partnership with national agricultural research systems aand advanced research institutes with a view to developing more sustainable and productive land use. The focus of its research is countries/regions in the developing world, particular in the tropics of Central and South America, Southeast Asia and parts of central Africa. The Centre also organises group and individual training for partners in various aspects of agroforestry science.

In 2002 the Centre acquired the World Agroforestry Centre brand name, although International Centre for Research in Agroforestry remains its legal name and it continues to use the acronym ICRAF.

Trees play a crucial role in almost all terrestrial ecosystems and provide a range of products and services to rural and urban people. As natural vegetation is cleared for agriculture and other types of development, the benefits that trees provide are best sustained by integrating them into agriculturally productive landscapes — a practice known as agroforestry. During the past 30 years, agroforestry has progressed from a traditional practice with great potential to the point where development experts agree that it provides a science-based means of achieving key objectives in natural resource management and poverty alleviation. Although smallholder families practise agroforestry widely, awareness about its potential and ability to benefit people trapped in poverty is inadequate. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, a global transformation is needed that mobilizes resources and removes socio-economic, ecological, and policy constraints leading to the widespread application of agroforestry. The World Agroforestry Centre and its partners, building on three decades of work with smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and strategic alliances with advanced laboratories, national research institutions, universities and non governmental organizations, are poised to foster such an ‘agroforestry transformation’ in the developing world.

This ‘agroforestry transformation’ involves a future in which millions of poor farming households have access to portfolios of adapted and productive tree enterprises that improve their livelihoods in a holistic way. Underpinning this transformation is the imperative of accelerated scientific research to ensure a stream of necessary technical, policy and institutional innovations. The Centre has identified the following seven key global challenges, related to the Millennium Development Goals, to which it will contribute:

Help eradicate hunger through basic systems of pro-poor food production in disadvantaged areas based on agroforestry methods of soil fertility replenishment and land regeneration;
Reduce rural poverty through market-driven, locally led tree cultivation systems that generate income and build assets;
Advance the health and nutrition of the rural poor through agroforestry systems;
Conserve biodiversity through integrated conservation and development solutions based on agroforestry technologies, innovative institutions and better policies;
Protect watershed services through agroforestry-based solutions that reward the poor for their provision;
Enable the rural poor to adapt to climate change and to benefit from emerging carbon markets, through tree cultivation; and
Build human and institutional capacity in agroforestry research and development.