To meet these objectives, the association has chosen to support groups of farmers in setting up agroforestry systems and planting ponds to promote biodiversity, and to raise awareness and mobilise people across the region.

Group training and technical support enable 15 to 20 agroforestry projects to be supported each year. 8 days of training and 2 days of planting enable each participant in the project to develop a personalised agroforestry system incorporating fruit and field trees adapted to current and future local conditions.

System fertility, erosion control, production of fruit, fodder or firewood, melliferous species or species that attract crop auxiliaries, buffering against extreme heat or limiting frosts, restoring biodiversity, managing water resources…. each project has specific aims, and trees are at the heart of all of them! The project is aimed at both small-scale and large-scale production models. The selection of more than a hundred possible tree varieties for installation means that a wide variety of agronomic and biodiversity issues can be addressed. It is also possible to restore or create ponds to encourage biodiversity, particularly with a view to preserving amphibian populations impacted by human activities. 6 to 10 ponds are created or restored each year.

The Au Pré de mes Arbres project also involves local stakeholders and citizens in raising awareness and taking part in planting projects. Every year, educational projects are set up with schools, colleges and secondary schools in pockets of agroforestry plots. Pupils learn in class about forest conservation, deforestation and agroforestry, and then take action in the field by supporting the planting of agroforestry systems.

The project encourages reflection on agroforestry models and tree production by organising a number of discussion groups, notably on the issues of self-production of seedlings at local level, the integration of natural regeneration into agroforestry systems, and the challenges of the agroforestry model of edible forestry.

These discussions led to an idea: what if the participants in the project were themselves to provide direct support to other farmers wishing to switch to trees? With this in mind, 3 Groupement d’Intérêt Economique et Ecologique projects will be launched in 2024 to ensure the long-term future of agroforestry in the Tarn!

Launched in 2019, the project has enabled the following in 5 years:

• Support for 99 agroforestry projects
• The planting of 20,400 trees of 102 different species
• 150 hectares converted to agroforestry
• The creation or restoration of 31 ponds
• Involvement of 2,500 inhabitants in the seeding activities
• Working with 4 schools on educational projects