Teak is produced in industrial plantations in more than 43 countries. National and international demand for teak timber exceeds the sustainable yield from natural forests and plantations. High demand creates opportunities for enterprising farmers. Teak is now grown in smallholder agroforestry systems in many tropical countries. These systems enable farmers to diversify production, reduce farm risk, contribute to food security, and generate much-needed income. They also meet commercial needs for timber and improve environmental conditions. This paper reports the contributions of teak systems to smallholders' livelihoods in Indonesia, where farmers have been producing teak for over 50 years. Indonesian farmers cultivate teak as one component in integrated multispecies agroforestry systems. Annual cropping is an important aspect of these systems, producing commodities for both household consumption and market sale. Besides supplying food for households, smallholder teak systems provide 40% of household income from agricultural and timber crops. Teak and other tree crops allow households to re-allocate labor to off-farm employment when those opportunities are lucrative. However, farmers suffer from limited resources, labor, and access to information, which constrain the productivity of their teak systems. Specific recommendations are provided regarding how smallholders can adopt improved silvicultural and marketing management. Roles for government, support agencies, and industry that would provide benefits to all parties are outlined. Policy changes that would motivate smallholders to improve the management of their teak systems are identified. Conclusions and recommendations are applicable to smallholder teak systems across the tropics.

The degree to which the maintenance of carbon (C) stocks and tree diversity can be jointly achieved in production landscapes is debated. C stocks in forests are decreased by logging before tree diversity is affected, while C stocks in monoculture tree plantations increase, but diversity does not. Agroforestry can break this hysteresis pattern, relevant for policies in search of synergy. We compared total C stocks and tree diversity among degraded forest, complex cacao/fruit tree agroforests, simple shade-tree cacao agroforestry, monoculture cacao, and annual crops in the Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. We evaluated farmer tree preferences and the utility value of the system for 40 farmers (male and female). The highest tree diversity (Shannon–Wiener H index 2.36) and C stocks (282 Mg C ha⁻¹) were found in degraded forest, followed by cacao-based agroforestry systems (H index ranged from 0.58–0.93 with C stocks of 75–89 Mg ha⁻¹). Male farmers selected timber and fruit tree species with economic benefits as shade trees, while female farmers preferred production for household needs (fruit trees and vegetables). Carbon stocks and tree diversity were positively related (R² = 0.72). Adding data from across Indonesia (n = 102), agroforestry systems had an intermediate position between forest decline and reforestation responses. Maintaining agroforestry in the landscape allows aboveground C stocks up to 50 Mg ha⁻¹ and reduces biodiversity loss. Agroforestry facilitates climate change mitigation and biodiversity goals to be addressed simultaneously in sustainable production landscapes.

Nine Latin American countries plan to use silvopastoral practices—incorporating trees into grazing lands—to mitigate climate change. However, the cumulative potential of scaling up silvopastoral systems at national levels is not well quantified. Here, we combined previously published tree cover data based on 250 m resolution MODIS satellite remote sensing imagery for 2000–2017 with ecofloristic zone carbon stock estimates to calculate historical and potential future tree biomass carbon storage in Colombian grasslands. Between 2000 and 2017, tree cover across all Colombian grasslands increased from 15% to 18%, with total biomass carbon (TBC) stocks increasing from 0.41 to 0.48 Pg. The range in 2017 carbon stock values in grasslands based on ecofloristic zones (5 to 122 Mg ha⁻¹) suggests a potential for further increase. Increasing all carbon stocks to the current median and 75th percentile levels for the respective eco-floristic zone would increase TBC stocks by about 0.06 and 0.15 Pg, respectively. Incorporated into national C accounting, such Tier 2 estimates can set realistic targets for silvopastoral systems in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) implementation plans in Colombia and other Latin American countries with similar contexts.