The promotion of agroforestry will be the economic strategy to improve the living standards of the population and protect the biodiversity of the Amazon and three other regions with rain forests, according to an agreement signed Jun. 24 in Washington by the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and Conservation International. ICRAF is an international farm research center and CI is an environmental organization. Both are committed to joining efforts in the Amazon, the mountain ecosystems of China, the high altitude forests of Guinea and the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.

Agroforestry is the integrated management of forestry and farming or livestock production, simultaneously or in succession. In the vulnerable soils of the tropical forests, it will be beneficial to balance “human needs and biodiversity conservation,” Jonathan Cornelius, representative in Peru of ICRAF, told Tierramérica.