2011 International Year of Forests

Marking the launch of the International Year of Forests by the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF9) in New York on 29 January, Dennis Garrity, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, highlighted the importance of mixing trees with agriculture. "Over a billion hectares of agricultural land, almost half of the world's farmland, have more than 10 percent of their area occupied by trees," said Garrity, "and 160 million hectares have more than 50 percent tree cover."

Later, speaking at the High Level Dialogue of UNFF9 on 3 February 2011, Garrity said, "Agroforestry is a crucial bridge between forestry and agriculture. Essentially, agroforestry is about the role of working trees in agricultural landscapes, particularly on, but not limited to, small-scale farms."

Adopting the slogan "Working trees that keep on giving," the Centre worked to integrate activities to celebrate the Year into its communications programme. The Centre participated actively with the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF - www.fao.org/forestry/cpf/en/), which is a voluntary arrangement among 14 international organizations and secretariats with substantial programmes on forests. Each month, several of the partners took the lead on developing and issuing a press release dealing with a particular aspect of forests. With the UN imprimatur, these statements featured widely in the world media. World Agroforestry contributed to most of the statements, and worked actively to develop those concerned with "Forests for People: Community-based Forest Management" and "Forests, Food Security and Agriculture."

Another element in the public awareness strategy was an intensified effort throughout the Year to place stories about the impact of Centre research with major media outlets at least once a month. A typical example was a story entitled "Why farming with trees boosts climate security" by the Reuters news agency (see www.trust. org/alertnet/news/expert-views-why-farming-with-trees-isclimate- security).

The Communications Unit developed an exhibition entitled "Working trees that keep on giving: an exhibition demonstrating the power of agroforestry, trees on farms and in the landscape." This display consisted of 30 panels with colourful photographs and simple text explaining aspects of agroforestry. As a way of quickly highlighting the value of agroforestry to new audiences, the exhibition was shown at a number of major international meetings throughout the Year, including the World Bank Investment Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, the FAO-sponsored First Drylands Week in Dakar, Senegal, the University of Leeds, UK meeting on "Food security, Health and Impact Knowledge Brokering," and the 10th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, in Changwon, Republic of Korea.

Bringing the subject to a much wider audience in the Centre's host country, the exhibition was also placed in the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi, for the months of July and August. During this time, as well as the usual stream of visitors, a series of groups of Kenya schoolchildren were shown the display and involved in school activities related to agroforestry.

In another sort of public awareness initiative, the BusyTrees campaign was launched at the Glastonbury Rock festival in the UK by Scriptoria Communications on behalf of World Agroforestry. Featuring several dedicated websites (busytrees.com and treesonfarms.com), the campaign uses cartoon characters, a petition, social media sites and public engagement to spread the word about agroforestry to the general public.

"The International Year of Forests is a momentous opportunity to more fully recognize the tremendous importance of agroforestry and evergreen agriculture in building a better world," noted Garrity. "Agroforestry is one of mankind's best hopes to create a climate smart agriculture, increase food security, alleviate rural poverty, and achieve truly sustainable development. And, thereby, better ensure that our world's forests can indeed be conserved far into the future."