It was in late 2002 that the idea of preparing a collection of multi-authored chapters on different aspects of ag- st forestry as a compendium for the 1 World Congress of Agroforestry, June 2004, was tossed around. With the approval of the idea by the Congress Organizing Committee, serious efforts to make it a reality got under way in early 2003. The rigorously peer-reviewed and edited manuscripts were submitted to the publisher in December 2003. Considering the many differentindividualsinvolved in the task as authors and manuscriptreviewers, we feel quite pleased that the task could be accomplished within this timeframe. We are pleased also about the contents on several counts. First of all, the tropical-temperate mix of topics is a rare feature of a publication of this nature. In spite of the scienti?c commonalities between tropical and temperate practices of agroforestry, the differences between them are so enormous that it is often impossible to mesh them together in one publication. Secondly, several of the chapters are on topics that have not been discussed or described much in agroforestryliterature. A third feature is that some of the authors, though well known in their own disciplinary areas, are somewhat new to agroforestry; the perceptions and outlooks of these scholars who are relatively unin?uenced by the past happenings in agroforestry gives a whole new dimension to agroforestry and broadensthescopeofthesubject. Finally, ratherthanjustreviewingandsummarizingpastwork,mostchapterstake the extra effort in attempting to outline the next steps.

Agroforestry and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.- Systems, Practices, and Components.- Hardwood silvopasture management in North America.- Riparian forest buffers in agroecosystems - lessons learned from the Bear Creek Watershed, central Iowa, USA.- Short-rotation woody crops and phytoremediation: Opportunities for agroforestry?.- Windbreaks in North American agricultural systems.- Organic farming and agroforestry: Alleycropping for mulch production for organic farms of southeastern United States.- Mechanized land preparation in forest-based fallow systems: The experience from Eastern Amazonia.- Medicinal and aromatic plants in agroforestry systems.- Forest gardens as an 'intermediate' land-use system in the nature-culture continuum: Characteristics and future potential.- The enigma of tropical homegardens.- Biological and Ecological Issues.- Nature vs. nurture: managing relationships between forests, agroforestry and wild biodiversity.- Tree domestication in tropical agroforestry.- Managing biological and genetic diversity in tropical agroforestry.- Why extensive research and development did not promote use of peach palm fruit in Latin America.- Exploiting the potential of indigenous agroforestry trees: Parkia biglobosa and Vitellaria paradoxa in sub-Saharan Africa.- Ecological interactions, management lessons and design tools in tropical agroforestry systems.- Interspecific interactions in temperate agroforestry.- Ecology of tree intercropping systems in the North temperate region: Experiences from southern Ontario, Canada.- Agroforestry as an approach to minimizing nutrient loss from heavily fertilized soils: The Florida experience.- Carbon sequestration: An underexploited environmental benefit of agroforestry systems.- Economics, Marketing, and Adoption.- Agroforestry development: An environmental economic perspective.- Adoption of agroforestry innovations in the tropics: A review.- Scaling up the impact of agroforestry: Lessons from three sites in Africa and Asia.- Trees of prosperity: Agroforestry, markets and the African smallholder.- Building opportunities for small-farm agroforestry to supply domestic wood markets in developing countries.- Markets and marketing strategies for agroforestry specialty products in North America.- Peasants, agroforesters, and anthropologists: A 20-year venture in income-generating trees and hedgerows in Haiti.- Knowledge Integration.- Computer-based tools for decision support in agroforestry: Current state and future needs.- Anthropogenic grasslands in Southeast Asia: Sociology of knowledge and implications for agroforestry.- Agroforestry research for development in India: 25 years of experiences of a national program.- Public/private partnerships in agroforestry: the example of working together to improve cocoa sustainability.- List of Reviewers.