In many tropical forest frontier areas, the expansion of export commodities such as palm oil, cocoa and soy isreplacing mosaics of natural forests and diverse agroforestry systems with treeless monocultures. Over time, this transformation leads to degraded soils, vulnerability to climate shocks, and income insecurity for farmers.

The challenge is to make agroforestry a viable and appealing land-use choice for smallholders, so thesesystems are not only preserved but scaled as a strategy for resilient livelihoods, while contributing tobiodiversity and climate goals.

In this Briefing Paper, we discuss the the Tropenbos International integrated approach is built around four key intervention areas:

1. Piloting and building capacity for agroforestry
2. Access to markets
3. Access to finance
4. Supportive policies