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Criteria for scaling up oil palm agroforestry in northeastern Pará, Brazil

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Authors: Camila Costa, Iguatemi Costa, Mauro Costa, Bruno Lima, Gizele Souza and Raoni Silva

General - 2024

ISSUE No.: 62

DOI: http://doi.org/10.55515/OZXO5423

Language: English

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The Brazilian municipality of Tomé-Açu has over two-hundred agroforestry systems, which integrate oil palm into a larger, diversified production system, promoting farmers’ livelihoods, biodiversity, and ecological resilience; avoiding the many social and environmental conflicts associated with oil palm monocultures. There are four main challenges to scaling up oil palm agroforestry in the Amazon. These include environmental and land tenure regularisation, implementing effective financing, meeting labour demands, and securing market connections. In response, the Expansion Pilot project has been collaboratively developed between Natura, CAMTA, and other organisations, to develop low-risk business models for farmers.

The project established guiding principles for oil palm agroforestry, which focus on plant diversity, functionality, and economic diversity as the three key performance indicators; checking reliability, eligibility, scalability, replicability, and impact. The guiding principles provide criteria and scoring systems for assessing the performance of agroforestry systems, ensuring continuous improvement over time. The financial implementation of agroforestry systems is also a key aspect, as financial institutions now offer investment lines specifically for oil palm agroforestry. Carbon sequestration and insurance specific to agroforestry are also being explored as potential financing mechanisms. Further improvements to oil palm agroforestry practices will require collaboration with government agencies, the development of mechanisation alternatives, and ongoing research and innovation; all of which will help mitigate the negative impacts of oil palm monoculture.
 

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Agroforestry at work

"Why do many farmers still resist adopting and scaling agroforestry? Are the economic benefits not enough, or not perceived to be enough? Or are there other reasons? These are the questions that were asked when work began on Tropical Forest Issues 62.

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These 26 examples of agroforestry at work, from a range of developing countries, all show that agroforestry provides direct and indirect benefits to farming families and the wider economy. The well-documented case studies show that agroforestry “works” — it contributes to improved livelihoods (including direct cash income), subsistence activities, employment and other community benefits. In highlighting the reasons for its success in a range of contexts, we hope to demonstrate that agroforestry can spread, encouraging other farmers to develop and expand more diversified, productive and resilient farming systems. Depending on the local context and individual traditions and perceptions, different farmers will have a preference for different agroforestry practices. This shows the importance of developing locally owned agroforestry production systems in order to achieve the full range of benefits. The articles in this issue describe a wide range of agroforestry practices from an array of environments and socioeconomic conditions.