This report represents Deliverable 1.6 of the EU DigitAF Project (digitaf.eu), and is the final deliverable of WorkPackage 1(Strengthening agroforestry and carbon farming policies: tools for policymakers). It analyses agroforestry policies across 14 EU Member States, examining current regulatory limitations, land tenure constraints, and the integration of agricultural trees with broader EU environmental lelgislation, offering a blueprint for future policy reform. The report highlights severe historical deficiencies in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) implementation, noting that actual agroforestry adoption consistently falls short of targets due to administrative complexities and unreliable data. Land tenancy acts as a major bottleneck; with roughly 46% of EU farmland rented, and short-term lease frameworks which fundamentally conflict with the long-term capital investment required for agroforestry. Beyond the CAP, the scaling of agroforestry is paralyzed by institutional silos and regulatory contradictions. Notably, remote sensing algorithms implemented under the EUDR may bring critical errors, misclassifying traditional anthropogenic silvopastoral systems (like the Spanish Dehesa) as forests, and risking false flags for forest degradation. To resolve these issues, the report presents the EURAF Agroforestry Blueprint (2028–2040). This strategy demands unified digital infrastructures (LPIS and NFI integration), harmonized definitions recognizing trees as productive assets, and financial de-risking through blended finance like Nature Credits.
Publication Date: 2026-06-19