Over 1,000 people participated in the 3rd WCA, theme - “Trees For Life”, in India, including people from more than 80 countries – tropical, sub-tropical and temperate (www.wca2014.org). Temperate agroforestry is a part of a larger picture of world agroforestry and it is important for North American researchers and practitioners to get together with counterparts from other parts of the world. Agroforesters from Canada and the United States that attended included Raju Soolanayakanahally (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Shibu Jose (Univ. of Missouri), P.K. Nair (Univ. of Florida) and Marney Isaac (Univ. of Toronto), to name a few.

Recognizing the need for agroforesters from around the world to get together, Dr. P.K. Nair, of the University of Florida organized and hosted the 1st WCA in Orlando, Florida in 2004. Dr. Nair was long employed by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya (now named the World Agroforestry Centre – still using the ICRAF acronym) from 1978 until he moved to the Univ. of Florida in 1987. The successful Orlando conference in 2004 was followed, in 2009, by the 2nd WCA, hosted by ICRAF in Nairobi.

At the India conference, an International Association of Agroforestry was founded and the European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF) was approved as the host for the next conference, the 4th WCA, to be held in 2019. Details about its location and dates will emerge as EURAF develops its plans. If you want to put this into your plans, keep an eye on EURAF’s website: www.agroforestry.eu.