Agroforestry with its outstanding variety of systems and technologies has been practiced in all parts of the world since times immemorial. Its worldwide recognition, scientific promotion and application in rural development strategies in the tropics, however, 'exploded' with two events: the foundation of the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), 1977 and the Eighth World Forestry Conference in Jakarta, 1978. This is important to be recalled at the occasion of the Ninth World Forestry Congress to be held in Mexico this year.
Agroforestry's holistic approach to solving land use problems under prevailing conditions and constraints of different humid, semiarid and mountainous regions has gained importance and produced first remarkable results with regard to increasing the human-ecological carrying capacity.
Forestry is gaining from the newly promoted strategies of integrated land use in various ways: less pressure on forest resources and thus less destruction of forest vegetation, additional lands for wood production outside the forest estate, cooperation instead of confrontation with other target groups, and an expanded multiple-use concept increasing the value of marginal forest lands. Agriculture and fivestock management are improved by various environmental benefits of the forest component and by the availability of forest products within agroforestry systems. First achievements over the past seven years have been encouraging in many instances. Much more, however, remains to be done in future.