FAO, leading the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’s Task Force on Best Practices, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Commission on Ecosystem Management, the Society for Ecological Restoration and Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry have released Principles for ecosystem restoration to guide the UN Decade 2021-2030 in five official UN languages.

Launched in English in September 2021 and now translated into Arabic, Chinese, French and Spanish, the principles for ecosystem restoration detail the essential tenets of ecosystem restoration that should be followed to maximize net gain for biodiversity, ecosystem health and integrity, and human health and well-being across all biomes, sectors and regions, which resonates with agroecological principles many objectives.

The ten principles covered in the publication state that good ecosystem restoration:

- contributes to global policy frameworks
- promotes fair and inclusive engagement
- includes a continuum of restorative activities
- aims to achieve the highest level of recovery for biodiversity and human well-being
- addresses the direct and indirect causes of degradation
- incorporates all types of knowledge
- sets well-defined ecological, cultural and socio-economic goals
- tailors activities to local and land/seascape contexts
- measures results and adapts actions
- integrates policies and measures that yield long-lasting impact.

This Network seeks to bring together owners and managers (public and private), processing and service companies, research centres, sector associations and other stakeholders in Spain and Portugal committed to the exchange of knowledge for the enhancement and sustainability of these systems.

Context in which it emerges

The last few decades have witnessed the degradation of the Dehesa and its equivalent in Portugal, the Montado, which threatens its sustainability and survival. This alarming degradation, the complexity of these systems and the challenges they face require:

Collaboration between all stakeholders (owners and managers, processing and service companies, industry associations, researchers, administration, etc.).
Greater coordination and transfer of the knowledge acquired on these systems.
Large-scale dissemination and implementation of good practices and innovative responses that enhance the economic value of the Dehesa and ensure its environmental sustainability.
Overall objective

In this context, the Network seeks to promote the transfer of knowledge, good practices and innovations in the management of the Dehesa and the production and marketing of its products, in order to contribute to the increased economic value and sustainability of these systems.

Specific Objectives

To publicise innovative experiences and good practices implemented by the economic sectors associated with the Dehesa.
To support the dissemination of knowledge, good practices and innovations that enable the economic and environmental enhancement of the Dehesa, its industry and associated services.
To improve communication between the productive sectors of the Dehesa (owners and managers, processing and service companies, sector associations), research centres and other organisations involved in the production and transfer.

An output of the Agroforestry Innovations Network H2020 project, the AFINET Knowledge Cloud fosters knowledge exchange by integrating and synthesizing existing pools of information on agroforestry in Europe, including knowledge coming from the AFINET project, innovative practices and experiences as well as regional, national and international project results, grey and scientific literature. 

Trees and field margins on arable land provide a great deal of plant and animal biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. However, in order to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of such landscape elements on arable land, care must be taken to ensure their good and rational design. The document separetly approaches the establishment of field margins and various forms of agroforstry to best suit local conditions and needs.

Agroforestry is an agronomic approach of growing trees and a low-crop, such as vegetables, cereals in the same field. It is an opportunity both economically for farmers and as an opportunity to increase the sustainability of agriculture, help reduce Green Houses Gases in the atmosphere, and increase biodiversity.