A groforestry has been an integral part of agricul-tural practices among indigenous communities in the Northeast region. The “Model Rules for Felling of Trees in Agricultural Lands” released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change have great significance for the region. The objective of the model rules is to enhance the ease of doing business in agroforestry and incentivise farmers to integrate trees into their farming system without facing undue procedural hurdles. The central government has acknowledged the crucial role played by agroforestry in diversifying livelihoods and increasing agricultural resilience. Because of its critical role in carbon removal from the atmosphere, the government has also promoted agroforestry for increasing tree cover outside forests for mitigation of climate change impact. The double benefit for the increasing tree cover outside forests is that felling of trees in forests for timber is reduced, which also prevents forest degradation and destruction in the long run. The Model Rules envisage a regulatory framework for the promotion, maintenance, and felling of trees and certification of timber produced from non-forest land, thereby encouraging landowners, farmers, and stakeholders to adopt agroforestry practices while ensuring sustainable resource management. It also emphasises that effective market linkages are essential for creating economic opportunities and fostering sustainable agroforestry practices by connecting plantations with wood-based industries and consumers, thereby ensuring that the efforts of landowners and farmers result in tangible financial benefits. It highlights that agroforestry has the ability to enhance farmer incomes, improve soil organic carbon, conserve water resources, and significantly contribute to India’s carbon sequestration goals, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural productivity and resilience. While these critical roles of agroforestry have been articulated into a set of Model Rules, indigenous communities in the region can take pride in the fact that their traditional knowledge about land classification, the role of agroforestry in the conservation of biodiversity, the conservation of water bodies, underground water sources, and meeting their timber need for household purposes and earning income from produce from agroforestry in a sustainable manner. The proposed establishment of a streamlined regulatory framework under the Model Rules to simplify procedures for tree felling, transit, and certification, thereby incentivising private participation and creating opportunities for farmers and stakeholders to adopt agroforestry practices, is expected to end bureaucratic red tape through the introduction of an online application in the case of securing a permit for felling fewer than ten trees in an agroforestry. The Model Rules insist that there is a need to promote high-value timber species, enabling India to achieve self-reliance in timber production and emerge as a global leader in sustainable timber markets. While adopting these rules, states in the northeast have to ensure that the introduction of high-value timber species does not lead to the replacement of local trees and shrubs in traditional agroforestry, which are essential to maintain the local biodiversity and environment. Implementation of these rules must not be without institutionalisation of checks and balances. The risk of overexploitation cannot be ignored, as market linkage also leads to profit maximisation by different stakeholders. In traditional agroforestry the use of trees as timber is controlled by certain rules and norms set by the communities which they have been observing for generations. Although these norms are more applicable in respect of community agroforestry, individual households also observe some of these while managing their individual agroforestry in their backyards or that raised in the homestead land. Public consultation and expert advice will provide pragmatic solutions as to what specific high-value timber species would be suitable for agroforestry of a particular agro-economic zone. The rules framed for adoption in the Northeastern states need to be specific about the conservation of the rich biodiversity of traditional agroforestry. The responsibility of procurement of high-value timber species based on an inventory prepared after consultation with community members and agroforestry experts being entrusted to the community will ensure maintaining the natural character of agroforestry of a particular village or area. Involving private parties from outside the state and the region who have no knowledge of a traditional agroforestry in the introduction of high-value timber species could lead to the replacement of tree species which are important for the particular agroforestry and traditional use of local people as private suppliers and timber traders, as the interest of profit maximization could push for the replacement of such trees even at the cost of the loss of rich biodiversity. Imparting digital literacy to communities in the region will be essential to enable them to utilise the online application system and prevent middlemen from exploiting them in the name of submittingonline applications and obtaining permission to fell trees in their agroforestry for commercial use. The ease of doing business in agroforestry cannot be at the cost of the loss of important species found in traditional agroforestry in the region. Wider publicity of the Model Rules and public consultations will enable the farmers and experts to come up with practical suggestions.