Agroforestry can reduce deforestation in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei: Study

Co-author of research report published in Nature Sustainability says land tenure, government policies, market demand, community governance must support agroforestry expanded

SINGAPORE (MNTV) — Intensifying heat waves, extreme floods and forest fires have devastated parts of Southeast Asia in recent years, spurring experts and authorities to look for holistic solutions.

Agroforestry, the practice of growing crops alongside useful trees and shrubs, is increasingly being touted as one such solution that simultaneously addresses the biodiversity and climate crises while enhancing farmer livelihoods and meeting societal needs for food, timber and other key products.

A new study published in Nature Sustainability suggests the benefits of this more climate-friendly and sustainable farming method might extend even further. 

The findings reveal agroforestry helped reduce deforestation across Southeast Asia by an estimated 250,319 hectares (618,552 acres) per year between 2015 and 2023, preventing between 43.3 million and 74.4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

“These diverse [agroforestry] systems can provide alternative sources of income [for farmers] — fuelwood, timber, fruits, and other products — reducing the economic pressure to clear more forests,” study lead author Steve Hoong Chen Teo, a researcher at the National University of Singapore, told Mongabay.  

Teo and his colleagues found that agroforestry reduced deforestation in 22 of the 38 subnational units, based on annual deforestation rates from 2015 to 2023, particularly in Laos, northern Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the island of Borneo, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Ultimately, the local social, economic and ecological conditions play a pivotal role in determining whether the impact of agroforestry is positive or negative, said study co-author Lian Pin Koh, a professor of conservation at the National University of Singapore.

“Variables such as land tenure, government policies, market demand, community governance and individual motivations all shape how agroforestry is adopted and expanded,” Koh told Mongabay in an email. “In some contexts, these factors align to support sustainable land use, reducing pressure on forests. In others, they may incentivize expansion into forested areas, exacerbating deforestation.”

Thomas Cherico Wanger, a group leader at Agroscope, the federal agricultural research institute of Switzerland, cited the example of cocoa production on the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and Sumatra, where agroforestry farmers have to optimize pollination on their farms to achieve yields approaching those of monocultures. 

By contrast, rubber agroforestry systems in Thailand can result in increased yields over monoculture, he noted. “So agroforestry in Southeast Asia cannot be said to behave the same across the whole region.”