Agroforestry may be the oldest form of agriculture, with evidence of its practice exceeding 10,000 years. But its rebirth in the modern world is a fairly recent affair. ICRAF, now know as World Agroforestry, was the first international body devoted to it and just celebrated its 40th anniversary. It was followed almost 30 years later by agroforestry federations in North America and in Europe.
With the global growth of interest in our favourite land use system came a growing desire by the world's agroforesters to join forces on a global level. It was resolved to set up an international union of agroforestry, IUAF. The first efforts to do so after the World Congress in New Delhi fizzled; but the renewed effort in Montpellier has finally borne fruit.
The International Union of Agroforestry, IUAF, has a temporary board that includes Christian Dupraz and Patrick Worms in a mirror from their positions in the EURAF board (in IUAF, Christian is President and Patrick treasurer). And now, thanks to the effort of our Czech colleagues Jakub Houška and Bohdan Lojka, the IUAF also has a home! It will be housed in offices graciously put at its disposal by the Dean of the faculty of tropical agriculture at the Prague University of life sciences, and has been promised seed funding by the Ministry of agriculture.
The IUAF office will be housed in a gorgeous, brand-new building whose opening was to be celebrated this month. Alas, the Coronavirus put paid to those plans. But, meanwhile, the complex issues of registering IUAF and opening its bank account are almost complete. Watch this space!