Climate solutions
Globally, tree-planting projects are rising as a key climate mitigation strategy through carbon sequestration. Smallholder agroforestry has huge potential here, which is why Solidaridad partnered with Acorn to bring these benefits to many farmers across the regions where we work. A durable project with long-lasting impacts stands or falls with farmer adoption. So, how will this work?
A familiar story: good plans, low survival
Many agroforestry projects start with the best intentions: A strong technical design, recommended species lists and an optimized agroforestry spacing plan.
Then reality hits: farmers are managing labour peaks, climate uncertainty, price volatility and household cash-flow needs. A design that looks optimal in a plan can introduce risks, new labour demands or delayed returns, or simply not fit the farm household’s needs. A tree that looks perfect on paper can be a problem on a farm. When agroforestry fails to align with farmer priorities, incentives, and timelines, there are consequences: adoption falters, management suffers and enthusiasm fades.
That is not a farmer problem. It is a design problem.
A shift that changes everything: from top-down to co-design
What if we treated agroforestry less like a package to deliver, and more like a solution to build together? That is the idea behind co-design: bringing farmers, local partners and technical experts into the same process to agree what success looks like, weigh the trade-offs and choose options that fit local contexts and farmer priorities.
Co-design does not mean “anything goes.” It means combining two kinds of expertise:
- Farmers’ expertise: what already works on the land, the risks and trade-offs they navigate, available labour and time throughout seasons, household priorities, local context, and what will actually succeed in the market.
- Technical expertise: which trees and crops meet the goals and ensure site-species matching, which crop markets show potential, how systems interact over time, the management they require, and the data, quality standards, or certification buyers may ask for.
When these perspectives align early, agroforestry is no longer just a project activity; it’s a locally driven plan that farmers can manage and adapt.
Introducing the Agroforestry Co-Design Guide
To make this approach easier to use in practice, Solidaridad and project partner Acorn developed the Agroforestry Co-Design Guide: a hands-on, workshop-based guide for organisations and teams designing agroforestry systems together with small-scale farmers. It includes practical tools and facilitation materials that can be tailored to any local context.
What’s inside?
A hands-on guide for putting co-design into practice, including:
- How to prepare for co-design with the right people in the room
- Workshop steps to help farmers surface priorities and constraints
- Simple ways to navigate trade-offs (because you cannot maximise everything)
- Workshop materials to create agroforestry farm lay-outs
- Templates and exercises you can reuse, not reinvent
The Agroforestry Co-Design Guide is available as a free resource, along with practical tools you can copy and use in your own workshops.
The co-design process in 4 steps
The guide follows a clear workshop flow that moves from shared priorities to a concrete design.
1) Start with reality, not solutions
Instead of starting with solutions, start with reality. Ask: What is getting harder on your farm, and why? Drought, soil loss, low productivity, income gaps, labour constraints. Farmers name the challenges they want to solve, and discuss how agroforestry could help.
2) Explore what “better” means for different people
Communities are not one voice. Women, men and youth may prioritise different benefits. Co-design creates space to name those differences and recognize that a shared direction may involve compromise rather than perfect agreement.
3) Make trade-offs visible (before planting starts)
Different choices bring different benefits and costs. Shade and tree growth interact differently with crops, water and soil, and trade-offs may be biophysical, economic or social. Fast-growing trees provide quick benefits but may compete for water or nutrients. Co-design puts these trade-offs on the table early so farmers can make informed decisions, plan management and avoid surprises later.
4) From co-design to an implementation-ready plan
Only after priorities and trade-offs are clear does the group develop a flexible plan for the “how”: species, placement, management and timelines. The guide also points to using modelling tools, where relevant, to sense-check the design before investing time and money.
Complementing with Payments for Carbon Sequestration
Agroforestry implemented at scale has the potential to create carbon payments. Though income from carbon is an additional incentive to transition to agroforestry, it should not be the primary rationale for tree planting. If trees are planted solely for carbon revenue, systems are less likely to be last. Co-design ensures that livelihoods and farm priorities remain central, with carbon payments considered as a complementary benefit.
The Acorn Platform, powered by Rabobank, has a unique focus on certifying smallholder agroforestry projects for carbon and provides payments to farmers for their carbon sequestration. The guide includes formats and tools designed for this certification process.
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes can create additional incentives alongside the environmental, social and economic benefits of climate-smart agriculture. Combined with participatory design, these mechanisms help strengthen ownership, adoption and the long-term sustainability of systems, ensuring they remain truly locally led. To learn more about how Solidaridad leverages this for farmers, read about our Climate Heroes Programme.
Contact
If you are planning a new agroforestry programme, or want to improve an existing one with Solidaridad, we would also welcome conversations on piloting or adapting the approach in your context.
Please reach out to Solidaridad’s Climate Change and Natural Resource Management Learning Group Lead, Laura Kiff (laurakiff@solidaridadnetwork.org) or Climate Heroes Programme Manager, Martine Krabben (martinekrabben@solidaridadnetwork.org).