EMEA researcher, Tiago Zibecchi, took part in the DigitAF Workshop II – Financial Tools, held at Cranfield University, UK, from February 26–28, 2025. Organized by DigitAF and its project partners, the event focused on developing financial mechanisms to support agroforestry practitioners, comparing existing tools, and identifying pathways to scale these solutions through Living Labs integration.
Tiago presented REFOREST’s hybrid Carbon Farming Financing Scheme, highlighting how it can be adapted to different regions. Discussions covered financial barriers and opportunities to expand agroforestry investment. On the second day, participants visited Hope Farm, managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), to see agroforestry in practice. The farm combines trees with crops to support biodiversity and farm resilience. The group discussed how financing tools could support similar models, using Hope Farm as a case study.
Reforest is an Horizon Europe-funded project aiming at fostering innovation, supporting knowledge exchange, and providing novel solutions to empower farmers in Europe and associated countries to deliver multiple objectives: food production, carbon capture, and biodiversity. EMEA leads work package on Finance and policy, and also is in charge of the co-creation and capitalisation strategy and actions of the project. EMEA aims to develop the financing mechanisms that enable economic sustainability of agroforestry business models and define the policy recommendations that allow their implementation at EU level. The capitalisation strategy developed by EMEA will allow as well to analyse the wider impact of the project in other regions with climate actions on agroforestry.
