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Dirk Röthig (international: Dirk Roethig) — CEO of VERDANTIS Impact Capital. Focused on sustainable investments in paulownia agroforestry and clean energy across Europe. dirkroethig.com
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Autor: Dirk Röthig, CEO VERDANTIS Impact Capital Datum: 13. April 2026 Kategorie: Demographie / Arbeitswelt Die 40-Stunden-Woche ist ein Relikt des Industriezeitalters. In einer Wissensgesellschaft, in der Produktivität weniger von Anwesenheitszeit ...
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Autor: Dirk Röthig, CEO VERDANTIS Impact Capital Datum: 10. April 2026 Kategorie: Agroforst / Regenerative Landwirtschaft Alley Cropping – zu Deutsch "Gassenpflanzung" oder "Zeilenagroforst" – ist eine Anbauform, die die klare Trennung zwischen Wald...
Autor: Dirk Röthig, CEO VERDANTIS Impact Capital Datum: 9. April 2026 Kategorie: KI-Wettbewerb / Technologie Künstliche Intelligenz trifft täglich Millionen von Entscheidungen, die das Leben von Menschen direkt beeinflussen. Kreditgenehmigungen, Ste...
Dirk Röthig
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By Dirk Roethig | CEO, VERDANTIS Impact Capital | March 3, 2026
Trees on farmland were considered inefficient for decades. Today research and practice show: agroforestry plots are more resilient, more productive and more climate-friendly than monocultures. Why Europe is rediscovering this knowledge — and what hurdles still need to be overcome.
Tags: Agroforestry, Europe, Mixed Cropping, Agriculture, Climate Adaptation
Driving through the cultural landscapes of southern Europe, you see agroforestry in its original form: olive trees between winter cereals, cork oaks above sheep pastures, almond trees at the edges of vegetable fields. These systems, known as Dehesa in Spain and Portugal, are thousands of years old. They arose not from idealistic conviction, but from economic necessity: if you lose your harvest to drought, you still have timber. If you can no longer harvest grain, you still have fruit.
The intensive agriculture of the 20th century displaced these systems across much of Central Europe. Specialisation and mechanisation were regarded as progress. Trees disrupted machinery use, complicated farm planning and were seen as relics of a pre-modern agricultural structure.
Today, the scientific assessment looks different. A wave of long-term studies, new funding programmes and growing pressure from climate extremes are bringing agroforestry systems back — this time not as a subsistence strategy, but as a well-founded agronomic response to the challenges of the 21st century (EURAF, 2024).
The term is broader than often assumed. Agroforestry encompasses all systems in which woody plants are deliberately combined with agricultural crops or livestock on the same land. The main system types in Europe are:
Silvoarable systems (tree-arable): Tree rows on arable land, with grain, oilseeds or vegetables cultivated between them. Trees can be used for timber, fruit or as agroforestry elements generating CO2 certificates.
Silvopastoral systems (tree-pasture): Trees on grazing land, classically the Iberian Dehesa. Animals use shade and fallen leaves; the trees produce timber and fruit.
Agrosylvopastoral systems: Combination of all three elements — trees, arable crops and livestock.
Short-rotation plantations in agroforestry: Fast-growing species like Paulownia, poplar or willow in strip planting on arable land, combined with conventional crops.
The distinction from forestry is clear: agroforestry systems maintain the agricultural function of the land. They are not forests, but an extension of arable farming.
The evidence base has become considerably more robust in recent years. Key findings:
CO2 sequestration: Agroforestry systems on arable land sequester an additional 1.1 to 4.2 t CO2/ha/year compared to pure arable land — a value that varies greatly depending on tree species, density and climate region (Tandfonline, 2025). Silvopastoral systems on the Iberian Peninsula achieve higher values up to 8 t CO2/ha/year (EFI, 2024). New systems on mineral soils with low tree cover have the greatest growth potential in CO2 sequestration (European Commission, 2025).
Biodiversity: Agroforestry plots consistently show higher species diversity than pure arable land in comparative studies. NABU analyses show that tree strips on arable land function as corridors for insects, birds and small mammals, thereby increasing pollination services (NABU, 2024).
Water regulation: Tree roots stabilise soil structure and increase water infiltration. During heavy rainfall events, agroforestry plots measurably reduce surface runoff and erosion (University of Göttingen SIGNAL Project, 2024).
Microclimate: Tree rows reduce wind speed and evapotranspiration on the arable plots between them. In heat summers, agroforestry plots can reduce crop losses that monocultures in open fields suffer.
Long-term productivity: A frequently cited concern — that trees reduce yields from the arable component — is only partially confirmed by research. Land Equivalent Ratios (LER) above 1.0 in well-designed systems show that overall land productivity can increase when tree and crop selection are coordinated.
Two regulatory frameworks are decisive for scaling agroforestry in Europe:
The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027 recognises agroforestry as an eligible agricultural activity for the first time. In Germany, farmers can apply for direct payments for maintaining existing agroforestry areas from Pillar 1 and new establishment grants from Pillar 2. From 2026, subsidy rates are to be increased from €200 to €600 per hectare of woody areas, as decided by the Agriculture Ministers' Conference in March 2025 (BMEL, 2025). The share of woody areas must be between 2 and 40 percent of total land; tree strips may not be wider than 25 metres.
The EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) was adopted on 6 December 2024 and creates a unified EU-wide framework for certifying carbon sinks, explicitly including agroforestry as an approved method (European Commission, 2025). The QU.A.L.ITY criteria — Quantification, Additionality, Long-term storage, Sustainability — define minimum standards for certificates. This is the regulatory foundation for an EU carbon market that includes agroforestry as a recognised approach.
Additionally, the BMEL funding programme for model and demonstration projects in agroforestry: since 2024, the projects MODEMA, AGROfloW, DigAForst, PappelWERT and SALIX AFS have been running (FNR, 2024). The MODEMA network coordinates the establishment of three model regions (North-West, East, South) with newly created and existing agroforestry systems — the basis for scalable practical experience.
The gap between scientific potential and actual adoption is considerable. Across Europe, less than one percent of arable land uses systematic agroforestry methods (Tandfonline, 2025). In Germany, the situation is particularly pronounced: the eco-regulation for agroforestry recorded near-zero demand when introduced (Agrarheute, 2024).
The reasons are structural:
Bureaucratic complexity: Combining woody plants with arable farming requires coordination between different subsidy regimes, land register changes and often unclear responsibilities between forestry and agricultural authorities. Farmers report considerable administrative effort.
Planning horizons: Trees grow over decades. Investment calculations for 15–30 years conflict with farm planning designed around two-to-five-year cycles.
Equipment availability: While conventional machinery can be adapted for strips between tree rows, there is still little standardised agroforestry equipment on the German market.
Knowledge transfer: Many farmers had no contact with agroforestry topics in their training. The MODEMA demonstration network is specifically designed to facilitate this transfer.
Europe is rediscovering agroforestry with some delay. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, integrated tree farming systems are more widespread and better documented in research.
As exemplars within Europe:
France had already introduced agroforestry payments under its own agricultural policy before the EU regulation and thus has a lead of several years. Research institutes such as INRA have published extensive system comparisons.
Great Britain is pursuing an independent agroforestry policy post-Brexit with the England Woodland Creation Offer and specific agroforestry grants under the Agricultural Transition Plan.
Spain and Portugal can draw on centuries-old Dehesa systems and have corresponding experience in management and ecology.
Germany, though agriculturally strong, is still below average in practical implementation of modern agroforestry systems — signalling a need to catch up, but also creating investment opportunities.
From an investment perspective, agroforestry offers an interesting profile: low correlation with traditional asset classes, natural inflation hedging through commodity price linkage, growing CO2 certificate revenues and ESG compliance.
Critical success factors:
At VERDANTIS Impact Capital, we structure agroforestry investments with a minimum term of 12 years — a framework that reflects the biological maturity of the systems while giving investors a credible return expectation.
Agroforestry is not a romantic return to the past. It is the scientifically grounded answer to problems caused by intensive monoculture farming: soil erosion, biodiversity loss, heat resilience and climate damage.
The policy conditions in Europe are favourable for the first time. CAP recognition, CRCF and national funding programmes send the right signal. What is still lacking is area-wide implementation.
The question is not whether agroforestry will play an important role in European agriculture. The question is how quickly the transition succeeds.
Dirk Roethig is CEO of VERDANTIS Impact Capital and advises investors at the intersection of agroforestry, carbon markets and impact investing. With over 20 years of experience in international corporate management, he combines scientific rigour with strategic investment thinking. His focus areas are the development of sustainable agroforestry systems, the structuring of carbon credit projects, and the question of how natural carbon sinks can be made economically viable.
Contact: LinkedIn | VERDANTIS Impact Capital
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About the Author: Dirk Roethig is CEO of VERDANTIS Impact Capital, Zug, Switzerland. Contact: dirkdirk2424@gmail.com | verdantis.capital
Von Dirk Röthig (Dirk Roethig)