Spice Agroforestry

From Field to Forest

There is a long history of growing spice in Zanzibar. In fact, the region is often referred to as Africa’s Spice Islands. In more recent times however competing local pressures for land and global market forces have caused a decline in spice farming and a conversion of land to less resilient and less profitable crops. “Spice Forests” create a clear incentive for farmers to transition away from monoculture farming to more resilient and regenerative agroforestry systems that function more like natural forests than farms.

Community Forests International and Community Forests Pemba work alongside the cooperative to attract private sector investment into this exciting new horticulture trade. These steps toward systems-level change through enterprise and value chain partnerships increase the sustainability of this work and a new multi-year partnership with the European Union will allow these activities to be expanded to new islands in the region.