Plenary Sessions
Our plenary sessions will stimulate an open and inclusive dialogue on some of the most important challenges that our planet is facing and the various ways agroforestry can contribute to meet them. In our panels, special attention will be given to farmers, women, youth and indigenous people representatives from around the world, acknowledging the importance of a fruitful exchange between traditional knowledge and science. This will be a great opportunity for researchers, advisors and policy makers to listen to key field actors’ voices and to engage with them in a crucial exchange on how to transition to a viable world!
After an opening session with representatives of First Nations and farmers, five plenary sessions will be devoted to the following themes: Perspectives on transition; Relation to nature; Governance of agroforestry; Agroecology and agroforestry; and a closing session with testimonies from various stakeholders from around the world. In addition, a lunch and learn panel will allow various actors of agroforestry to share the fruit of their experience with the next generation of scientists.
- Opening Session
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Voices from Québec and from all over the world will unite to the organizing committee of the 5th World Congress on Agroforestry to officially welcome participants to Québec and pave the way for discovery, discussion, and sharing.
Learn more about the speakers here - 1. Perspectives on Transition
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Human and ecological systems are at the breaking point. While climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution and growing economic and social inequalities threaten and weaken the health of populations, ecosystem balances and social cohesion, the need for a transition to make the world viable is clearer than ever. Frequently used in a host of fields, the concept of transition and its implications, both practical and philosophical, deserve to be addressed in order to better understand its meaning and scope. This first plenary will give the floor to people from different backgrounds to better understand what a transition is and the role that agroforestry can play in facilitating it, from the farm to the planet scale.
Speakers:-Christian Taillon: Organic dairy farmer in Saint-Prime, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean. My windbreaks, sources of pride and biodiversity
-Claire Lamine: Sociologist attached to the Ecodevelopment Unit of INRAE in France. The agroecological transition at the territorial level: a sociological perspective
-Jérôme Dupras: Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. Natural infrastructures to accelerate ecological transition
-Isabelle Ahou Fram Tano: Cacao producer and vice-president of the FAHO cooperative in Ivory Coast. Planting trees to save our cocoa production
-Dennis Garrity: Chair of the Board of the Global EverGreening Alliance. The Crucial Positive Climate Tipping Point
Learn more about the speakers here - 2. Relation to Nature
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Agroforestry prompts a redefinition of the relationship between societies and the environment. The human capacity to manage land by various arrangements of plants and trees refers to the notion of domestic nature, proposed by Philippe Descola according to a perspective which is both ethnographic and naturalist. The idea of a domestic nature abolishes the dualism between nature and culture and makes it possible to contemplate how humans belong to ecosystems, regardless of how these ecosystems are managed. The question however is whether agroforestry can help establish a more equitable relationship between human needs and the needs of countless non-humans within ecosystems, long neglected in modern Western understanding of the environment. In order to extend this reflection, this plenary session brings together various perspectives on the relationships with nature that emerge through agroforestry. We bring together indigenous, peasant and scientific perspectives to fuel the discussion.
Speakers:
-Michèle Audette: Canadian Senator and former President of the Native Women's Association of Canada. Relation to Nature: a Testimony
-Rodolphe de Koninck: Professor emeritus at the Université de Montréal. The historical struggle against trees: where do we stand?
-Terrylynn Brant: Owner and operator of Mohawk Seedkeeper Gardens. Close Your Eyes and See the Forest
-Miriam Nobre: Agronomist, Sempreviva Organização Feminista. "We are not afraid of diversity". Feminist learnings from agroforestry
-Geneviève Michon: Research Director at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). The farmers of the world, inventors of agroforestry
Learn more about the speakers here - 3. Governance of Agroforestry Initiatives
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Agroforestry is now at the heart of global strategies to mitigate climate change and combat environmental degradation. As part of the Bonn Challenge, 47 countries have pledged to restore 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. Whether through initiatives specifically targeting carbon sequestration to offset emissions, or projects focused on forest landscapes restoration (FLR), many actors seek to spread agroforestry systems. However, these initiatives depend on international funds and carbon finance targeting the land of farmers in low-income countries, where it is assumed that the establishment of agroforestry systems is less expensive and more compatible with farmers practices. Should we be wary of agroforestry projects resulting from international objectives and carbon finance or celebrate the advent of a new era that promises to accelerate the spread of agroforestry? How to ensure adequate governance of these initiatives which objectives and modus operandi may go against peasant systems and values? What are the real needs of peasant communities, and are they really compatible with the global goals of carbon sequestration and ecological restoration? This session convenes various perspectives on the issue in order to promote exchanges.
Speakers:
-Kahlil Baker: Co-founder and Executive Director of Taking Root
-Gilmar Navarrete Chacon: Director of Environmental Services of the National Forest Financing Fund in Costa Rica
-Jessica Donham: Researcher for Agroecology Europe
-Vijay Kolinjiadi: Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB) of the University of Antwerp
-Emma van de Ven : Strategy Lead for ACORN, Rabobank
Learn more about the speakers here - 4. Lunch and learn panel: Agroforestry challenges for a new generation of scientists
- The lunch and learn panel will allow renowned researchers and professionals who already have a long career behind them, as well as young researchers and professionals starting their own, to share the fruits of their experience with the next generation of scientists.
In this panel, the panelists, who are all people who contribute or have contributed significantly to agroforestry in many different ways, will first present, in a personal way, their professional background, emphasizing what led them to work in agroforestry, the challenges they had to face, their greatest discoveries, their mistakes, too, and how they would foresee their career if they started it today.
Afterwards, the panelists will be invited to answer a few questions from young agroforestry scientists and the entire audience.
Panelists:
-Christian Dupraz, International Union for Agroforestry
-Harry Green, Propagate
-P.K.R. Nair, University of Florida
-Zenabou Segda, Women Environmental, Programme Burkina
-Vivian Valencia, Wageningen University and Research
Learn more about the speakers here - 5. The Agroecology-Agroforestry Nexus
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Agroecology is a science, a set of practices and a series of social movements emerging as a credible pathway toward more equitable, resilient, diversified, ecological and healthy food systems. Facing complex and interrelated socio-ecological challenges such as climate change, land and water resources depletion, increasing economic and social inequalities, conflicts, and food insecurity requires holistic actions. As such, agroecology proposes a comprehensive set of principles that go way beyond the spectrum of ecological agroecosystem management to encompass notions of co-creation of knowledge, social connectedness, responsible governance, and equity and agency, among others, to build food systems on viable foundations as well as to influence the political and social structures that govern them. Agroforestry and agroecology share many common grounds, and the agroforestry-agroecology nexus is mainly considered in a perspective focusing on system performances and synergies. Indeed, agroforestry can represent a highly developed form of agroecology, and applying agroecological principles in the design and management of agroforestry systems can significantly enhance their contribution to food system transition. While discussing these important connections, this plenary aims at extending the scope of the reflections by exploring how agroforestry and agroecology worlds can nurture and learn from each other on cross-cutting issues such as co-design, scaling-up, fairness, governance, advocacy, discourse framing and policy making, to ultimately foster the transition to a viable world.
Chairs:
-Marney Isaac: Professor at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems and Development
-Fergus Sinclair: Chief Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF
Speakers:
-Francisco Rosado-May: Founding President of the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo. A Yucatec Maya perspective to the interface of agroecology and agroforestry
-Swati Renduchintala: Associate Scientist with World Agroforestry. Scaling agroecology through community-based intervention in Andhra Pradesh
-Mai Phuong Nguyen: Associate scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF. Engaging women and marginalized groups to develop agroecological landscapes in Vietnam
-Genna Tesdall: Director of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development. Youth leadership for agroecology and agroforestry
-Janet Maro: Executive Director at Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania. Agroforestry for agroecology, experiences from Tanzania
-Marney Isaac: Professor at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems and Development. Highlights from the parallel session on agroforestry and agroecology
Learn more about the speakers here - 6. Closing Session
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A World Congress on Agroforestry is a unique opportunity to learn, share and network in order to stimulate the transition to a viable world. Through the presentation of different perspectives on the various issues discussed during the congress (farmers', philosophical, artistic as well as scientific ones), the Closing Session will permit to examine its reach while helping the congressists to project themselves into the future.
Speakers:
-Yves-Marie Abraham: Professor at HEC Montréal. For an imposed or chosen degrowth?
-Christian Dupraz: President of the International Union for Agroforestry. Announcement regarding the host of the 6th World Congress on Agroforestry… and more !
Learn more about the speakers here
Learn more about the speakers here