1. The Social and
Economic value of trees
and forests
In Agricultural Systems for Landscape Resilience
Presented by Marlon Beale
Zonal Director, Forest Operations (Eastern)

2. Presentation Outline
 Definition of key terms
 The value of trees and forests
 Agricultural systems and food security (Caribbean context)
 Importance of forests and trees in agricultural systems
 The work of the Forestry Department

3. Key Definitions
 RESILIENCE
 The capacity of an environment to absorb external shocks and continue function at
optimal levels
 LANDSCAPE
 Which is dynamic, flexible and multi scalar, can act as the device capable to allow
the territory to find continuous adjustments in front of variable dynamics
 AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
 Represents an appropriate combination of farm enterprises, cropping systems,
livestock, fisheries, poultry and the resources available to the farmer to raise them
for food and or profitability

4. Definitions cont’d
 VALUES
 Social (and Cultural): related to spiritual or aesthetics; interactions and
relationships between and among people (trees)
 Economic: consumer preference and people’s willingness to pay for a particular
good or service

5. Value of Forests and Trees
 The Caribbean region contains a rich variety of complex ecosystems with a
great abundance of plants and animals species.
 The high level of endemism also makes the regions forests important and of
high value
 The change from agriculture based economies to service based economies
(mainly tourism) has implications for Forest resources and their management

6. Agricultural Systems and Food Security
 The Caribbean has one of the most diverse and complex range of agricultural
systems in the world
 Three main systems used:
 Multi cropping (predominantly used in subsistence farming)
 Mono cropping (used both by subsistence and commercial farmers)
 Pastoral farming (for livestock production systems
 Food security and quality food products are a priority to island communities.
 Statistics show that people sometimes cannot afford to buy good quality food
and instead consume cheaper or more convenient but unhealthy processed
food

7. Systems and Security cont’d
 AGROFORESTRY
 Properly managed agroforests protect watersheds and are typically superior to
tilled field agriculture in protecting soils from erosion.
 Agroforests can enhance economic productivity by cash cropping and providing
materials and experiences for island tourism industries.
 The economic values of subsistence crops should be better recognized and
quantified in terms of import substitution and cash equivalence for family incomes
 Has social and cultural benefits; practicing agroforestry can help retain traditional
ecological knowledge and cultural practices related to specific systems and species

8. Systems and Security cont’d
 Types of Agroforestry used within the Caribbean and Jamaica
 Urban Agroforestry
 Combination of agriculture and forestry practices in an urban setting
 Shade Coffee
 Growth of coffee in secondary forest setting and provides socio-economic benefits, through
sustainable forest products
 Multi-storey Agroforestry
 Not much practiced, but allows socio-economic and commercial benefits, and maintains
ecosystems services within an agricultural setting
 Wind breaks
 Basically used for wind protection especially in areas where salt spray in coastal areas may
impact production

9. Systems and Security cont’d
 Silvopasture systems
 Combination of trees and pasture production to make efficient use of space and
natural resources to produce animal products as well as tree products
 They help create resilient landscapes by conserving soil humidity, reducing wind,
improving water quality, and reducing soil erosion
 Specific benefits of silvopasture trees include mitigating climate change by storing
carbon, recycling nutrients from deeper layers of soil for use by plants and
microorganisms nearer the soil surface and in the case of nitrogen fixing species,
by adding nitrogen to the system.

10.  Shade Trees
 Strategically placed shade can promote more uniform grazing over the paddock.
 Living Fences
 They provide shade, shelter, fodder, and aesthetics. They also serve as ecological corridors.
The most common species used in the Caribbean Area are Gliricidia sepium and Guazuma
ulmifolia.
 Alley Cropping
 This practice involves producing forage in alleys between rows of trees or shrubs
 Protein Banks
 This practice involves producing forage in alleys between rows of trees or shrubs
Systems and Security cont’d

11. Importance of forests and trees to
Agricultural Systems
 Forests, trees on farms and Agroforestry systems contribute to food security,
nutrition and livelihoods in several ways
 Provision of genetic material important for crop and livestock improvement and
are home to many pollinator species
 Mountain forests provide essential ecosystem services, such as the provision of
high-quality water for downstream communities and their agricultural activities
 There is enormous potential to use more forest species, including plants and
insects, for the largescale production of foods. Many forest foods and tree
products have extremely high nutritional value.

12. Forests and Agricultural Systems cont’d
 Forests and trees are important sources of food and income, especially for the
poor and women, and may be key in times of economic, political or ecological
crisis.
 The presence of forests and trees increases ecosystem resilience and the
capacity of people to meet their nutritional needs.
 Indigenous peoples and other local communities hold an immense wealth of
traditional knowledge on the cultivation, harvesting and preparation of forest
foods and tree products and on sustainable land management.
 Traditional forest–agriculture landscapes tend to have high resilience in the face
of environmental and social perturbations

13.  Food security is grounded in diversity:
 In terms of biota, landscapes, cultures, diets, production unit and management.
Forests and trees are critical for maintaining that diversity
Forests and Agricultural Systems cont’d

14. Forestry Department‘s Work
 The Forestry Department is guided by 5 Strategic Objectives
 Two of these are most relevant to agricultural systems
 Increase participation of the private sector and non-government organisation
 Increase community participation and public awareness
 The Private Planting Programme
 Established early 1950s and essentially is the free distribution of seedlings in
response to levels of deforestation and forest degradation

15. FD’s work
 Private Planting Programme Facts
 Targets a wide range of stakeholders including small and large scale farmers and public
land holding entities
 Farmers with small to medium-size holdings have been the main beneficiaries of the
programme to date, however, an ever increasing number of large estate owners are
planting portions of their lands with timber trees for commercial production.
 Free timber tree seedlings and technical advice are provided by the Department,
especially to farmers.
 The programme currently has over 4000 registered participants
 In the process of determining the actual contribution of these participants to forest
cover

16. Summary
 Climate change is present and will impact food security.
 Agricultural systems used are essential to food security within the Caribbean and in
particular Jamaica
 The natural environment namely forests and trees are key to the sustainability of
agricultural crops presently and in the future especially in the Caribbean.
 For climate change impacts to be mitigated against landscape resilience has been
identified as a key component for food security.
 Therefore the incorporation of landscape resilience strategies in our agricultural
systems augurs well for the Caribbean
 The Private Planting Programme of the Forestry Department complements other
climate work related with agricultural systems especially in Agroforestry and
Silvopasture.