Organized by the World Agroforestry Centre and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Congress attracted close to 1200 participants from across the world, and was addressed by an impressive array of high-level speakers, including: Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement and Nobel prizewinner; Richard Leakey, the anthropologist and conservationist; MS Swaminathan, one of the fathers of the Green Revolution and now a champion of ‘evergreen agriculture’; Namanga Ngongi, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); and RK Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His Excellency Kalonzo Musyoka, the Vice President of Kenya, delivered the host country address on behalf of President Mwai Kibaki.

In his opening speech, Dennis Garrity, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, conceded that the congress theme – ‘Agroforestry – the future of global land use’ – might seem far-fetched to some people. But he pointed out we now have plenty of evidence to show that agroforestry can deliver a wide range of benefits. It can enhance food security and improve rural livelihoods; increase soil fertility; absorb atmospheric carbon, a major greenhouse gas; and provide farmers with the technologies to restore degraded land.

The number of trees in forests may be decreasing, but the number on farms is steadily increasing.

The three main sub-themes of the Congress were food security, the conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources, and policies to enhance agroforestry. These were addressed at plenary sessions and explored in greater depth at over 30 technical sessions, at which scientists were able to deliver presentations and discuss their latest research. Much of this research will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Such was the strength of the case made for agroforestry, and for increasing its practice worldwide, that Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, was moved to remark: “There are so many reasons why agroforestry should be practised everywhere. When something is so obvious, why isn’t it catching on like wildfire?”

One reason, highlighted by several speakers, relates to the failure of agroforesters to communicate their findings in a compelling and intelligible way to policy makers, politicians and the public. “Agroforestry has a public relations problem, and we’re often considered boring,” suggested Roger Leakey of James Cook University, Australia. “It’s time we learned how to talk more persuasively to communicators.” Encouragingly, over 100 journalists attended a press briefing at the beginning of the Congress, and during the course of the week articles about agroforestry appeared in Time magazine, New Scientist and other international and national media.

The final day of the Congress was a time for reflection, with PK Nair chairing a symposium on the theme, ‘The way forward - energizing the next wave of agroforestry science.’ Meine van Noordwijk of the World Agroforestry Centre provided an overview of the highlights of the Congress, stressing the importance of linking science to policy. His colleague Frank Place provided insights into the discussions on the Agroforestry Policy Initiative, which the World Agroforestry Centre will be coordinating over the coming years. Finally, Dennis Garrity stressed the need to continue producing high–quality scientific research which has an impact on climate change decision-making, food security and much more.