Agroforestry Design for Sustainable Production Systems in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands

View the project final report

• 2016 annual report

Commodities

Practices

• Animal Production: feed/forage, free-range, grazing - multispecies, housing
• Crop Production: windbreaks
• Education and Training: technical assistance, extension, workshop
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns, risk management, value added, whole farm planning
• Natural Resources/Environment: afforestation, biodiversity, habitat enhancement, soil stabilization, hedges - woody
• Pest Management: biological control, cultural control, prevention, mulching - vegetative
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management, organic agriculture, permaculture
• Soil Management: soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems, public policy, urban/rural integration

This project enhances the ability of agricultural professionals in the Pacific to address food security and natural resource concerns through agroforestry. For millennia, Pacific Islanders relied upon their broad-scale agroforestry systems for sustainable supply of food, fiber, medicine, and materials. These highly productive systems simultaneously provided ecosystem services such as soil and water conservation in the uplands and coastal protection along rivers and coastlines. Many of the legacy agroforestry trees in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands were removed over the past 100 years to accommodate plantation monocultures, open pasture, and urbanization. 

Over the past 20 years, there has been increasing awareness of agroforestry as a means of addressing food security, local economic development, and resource conservation needs. A recent survey of participants in the April–June 2015 WSARE-sponsored professional development workshop series “Creative Agroforestry for Food Production in Farm, Home, and Community Landscapes” showed that agroforestry design was the highest priority for further education among agricultural professionals and educators (as well as producers). 

Experts in agroforestry design, establishment, and management authored a technical publication for professionals, integrating time-tested traditional Pacific Island agroforestry practices with modern knowledge and technology. All authors have extensive hands-on agricultural field experience in the Pacific. The publication was used as the primary resource for a professional development workshop series. 

This project will produce a comprehensive manual for design and management of agroforestry production systems in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands followed by workshops to be presented in Hawai‘i, Guam, and Pohnpei.

Objective 1: Author a comprehensive agroforestry design manual for the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands.

Objective 2: Present professional development workshops in Hawai‘i, Guam, and Pohnpei based on the design manual.