UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 4
tween the 2,5 hectares Ketelbroek Food forest in
the Netherlands, established in 2009, and a corresponding area at De Bruuk nature reserve, a Natura 2000 protected area with old forests, thickets
and open, species rich grasslands. The question
was to what extent the food forest could accommodate the native flora and fauna, by looking at birds,
moths and ground beetles. The research concluded that the young food forest hosted more breeding birds, and significantly more moths and
ground-dwelling beetles.
2. GARDENS, FARMS AND FORESTS VISITED
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS
WITH NON-INDUSTRIAL
AGROFORESTRY
For most owners and managers of the gardens,
farms and forests visited in Sweden, food security
and crisis preparedness is an underlying motivation and driving force in their activities and interest
in agroforestry. At Väversunda berry orchard, an
“emergency forest garden” with nut crops was
Pastures with magnificent oaks, Småland, Sweden.
established by Tor Nyberg in the early 1990s,
drawing from experiences from crisis prevention
by planting trees, due to a life-long engagement
in the Swedish aid agency We-Agroforestry. At
“Östergård farm” in southern Småland, a region
with vast spruce plantations that was hit hard by
the Hurricane Gudrun’s devastation in 2005,
Anders Rydén is managing underbrush in his production forest with grazing cows. He emphasized
the importance of having forest grazing systems
in place to avoid emergency slaughter when
fodder is scarce following a dry summer. At Stora
Juleboda farm, we learned how foraging in the
edge zones saved the farm financially one year
when a spring frost destroyed the apple harvest.
The Unhide project offered brief glimpses of complex processes shaping Latvian agriculture and
forestry and a somewhat limited understanding
of the sites visited. But it was clear to us that we
have a lot to learn from the Baltic countries about
maintaining a system of self-sufficiency in tandem
with industrial agriculture. As a testimony, we repeatedly encountered people selling honey, sap,
mushrooms, jam, pickled vegetables and home
knitting at our road stops.
