Agroforestry systems in Spain’s agriculture and climate plans

The CAP Strategic Plan 2023–27 sets out a national definition of an agroforestry system and details how it is to be monitored and promoted by the autonomous communities. On arable land, more than 100 trees per hectare are required; on permanent pasture, the definition is based on the pasture under-sown coefficient. Six of the nine ecoregions under Pillar II of the Agricultural and Rural Development Fund can promote agroforestry systems, particularly in relation to grazing and vegetation cover. Of the 28 measures under Pillar II, at least 13 can support these systems, two of them explicitly so. The Spanish SIGPAC, with specific categories for silvopasture, covers 100 per cent of rural land uses, enabling detailed monitoring of tree cover and providing key indicators such as the area of afforestation with annual maintenance payments (0.17) and the area of landscape features (2.12). Spain, with some 3 million hectares of dehesa, has the largest agroforestry area in the EU and can utilise its advanced monitoring system to integrate CAP monitoring with the national emissions inventory and farm-level carbon certification.