Counterpart International's Forest Gardens Program helps rural communities protect biodiversity, reduce poverty, improve food security and restore degraded tropical forest ecosystems.

Based on the principles of Analog Forestry developed over the past 20 years by Counterpart International (Counterpart) Senior Scientist, Dr. Ranil Senanayake, the Forest Gardens Program provides an urgently-needed alternative to destructive "slash and burn" farming practices.

Forest Gardens aims to protect the diversity and complexity of tropical forests by retaining the tree canopy for wildlife habitat, facilitating carbon sequestration and protecting soils against erosion, while promoting the sustainable harvest of fuel and timber wood. The lower levels of Forest Gardens are interplanted with fruits, vegetables, herbs, medicinal plants, flowers and other natural products for both personal consumption and sale by local communities.

Sales of shade-grown Forest Gardens crops such as coffee, cacao, vanilla, cardamom, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, rattan and orchids allow poor farming communities to improve their income while protecting the forests.

Dr. Senanayake noted that conversion from agricultural land to full canopy forest may take several decades depending on the particular ecosystem, climate and weather (as shown in the above figure). The transformation occurs in successive stages over time as plants compete for light, water, nutrients and space.

Forest Gardens are important to the global environment because they provide an economically sustainable way to maintain and restore native biodiversity. Additionally, the gardens possess long term carbon storage, which will counter global change.

Photo: © Counterpart International.