Читать книгу North American Agroforestry - Группа авторов - Страница 52

In addition to the five recognized practices, there is an emerging, sixth agroforestry practice. Urban Food Forests, have gained considerable attention over the past decade (Lovell, 2010; Clark and Nicholas, 2013; Bukowski and Munsell, 2018; Park et al., 2019). Urban Food Forests are defined as: i) The intentional use of perennial food‐producing plants to improve the sustainability and resilience of urban communities (Bukowski and Munsell, 2018); 2) A food forest is an edible, perennial, polyculture system that is designed and managed to mimic multistory forest structures and to function like a natural, self‐sustaining forest (Park et al., 2018). The term food forest signifies an intentionally designed, highly integrated community of plants that has various vertical and horizontal plants and root layers that collectively provide edible products (Bukowski and Munsell, 2018). Urban food forestry is an emerging multifunctional and interdisciplinary approach to increasing urban sustainability and resilience, particularly where food security is concerned, and provides a starting point for bridging gaps in knowledge and practice between urban agriculture, urban forestry, and agroforestry. Also, as noted in Bukowksi and Munsell (2018), another commonly used term is community food forests.

Clark and Nicholas (2013) note that urban food forestry is a viable and important strategy to address multiple sustainability challenges (e.g., food security, climate change, and poverty), to contribute to human health by increasing affordable public access to and consumption of nutrient dense foods to combat hunger and obesity, and can be also used to promote sustainable urban development through providing enhanced ecosystem services.