As a researcher committed to addressing the climate emergency, in 2017 I (Liz Carlisle) was eagerly reading through a new ranked list from Project Drawdown of strategies to reduce emissions, when I came across a word I’d never heard before. Silvopasture. This agricultural practice was the ninth most emissions-reducing climate solution on their list, ahead of rooftop solar panels, electric vehicles, and every other agricultural technique the scientists analysed. It had the potential to reduce more than 31 gigatons of carbon dioxide, more than three times the emissions reductions possible with a transition to electric cars. And yet, despite having written three books about regenerative agriculture and interviewed dozens of environmentally minded farmers across the United States, I had somehow never heard of it. I wasn’t alone in my curiosity.
Another researcher in California was also intrigued by this promising climate solution, wondering why more of her colleagues weren’t talking about it. Following her graduate research in local food systems planning, Niki Mazaroli spent several years working on agriculture and climate projects for various local organisations before starting her own consultancy. The clients for her regional climate strategies and community food security roadmaps never mentioned anything about silvopasture. Yet, prior to California, Mazaroli had worked with sustainable agriculture institutes and demonstration projects in Ecuador, the Virgin Islands and the Pacific Islands, where this practice had a deep history and was relatively common. Overseas, Mazaroli found major international development programmes such as the US Peace Corps recommending silvopasture as a promising strategy for sustainable farming. How come it wasn’t being promoted to farmers and ranchers at home?
In 2020, we both found ourselves teaching in the Environmental Studies programme at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and we resolved to team up and investigate.
Silvopasture is the ancient practice of raising animals, trees and pasture (grasses) on the same piece of land, a form of agriculture that is common in forested parts of the world. There are many forms of agroforestry – farming systems that incorporate trees – but silvopasture is unique among these practices in that trees are integrated with animals. The physical proximity of plants and livestock doesn’t alone make up silvopasture. Rather, the practice and its benefits hinge on careful management by people, who intentionally link up the inputs and outputs of plant and animal systems such that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For example, trees provide shade for livestock, and fallen or low-hanging fruits can provide food for the animals too. Meanwhile, animal manure fertilises the trees, and also the animals’ browsing activity can sometimes benefit tree growth, acting as a form of pruning.
Researchers have documented numerous environmental benefits of silvopasture, including increased biological diversity, improved water quality, reduced soil erosion, improved soil water-holding capacity, and enhanced pest management. But none of these benefits have garnered as much attention as silvopasture’s enticing potential to sequester carbon.
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