Ecosystem Services And Agroforestry Science And Practice

Agroforestry refers to a land-use management system wherein trees or shrubs are grown among crops or pastureland. Agroforestry-based ecosystem services refer to human benefits that are achieved beyond the farm scale as a result of farm trees' interaction with soil and water, carbon storage, and biodiversity. This intentional combination of agriculture and forestry has multiple benefits, such as enhanced yields from staple food crops, enhanced farmer livelihoods from income generation, increased biodiversity, improved soil structure and health, reduced erosion, and carbon sequestration. The policies that promote agroforestry-based ecosystem services result in on-farm benefits, landscape and watershed benefits, and national and global benefits. This book is compiled in such a manner, that it will provide in-depth knowledge about agroforestry-based ecosystem services. It will also provide interesting topics for research, which interested readers can take up. The book is a vital tool for all researching or studying agroforestry.

This book is a state-of-the-art compilation of the latest information on ecosystem services of agroforestry. The last two decades have seen a surge in literature on the ecosystem services of sustainable agriculture practices, including that of agroforestry; however, compilation and synthesis of such information from agroforestry have been limited. This book fills that void by bringing in a number of experts from around the world. In addition to presenting the multiple dimensions of ecosystem services provided by major agroforestry practices, the book also offers case studies from both tropical and temperate regions of the world. Information from this book can be used to design land management practices for climate change mitigation, ecosystem benefits, agricultural productivity and sustainability, and for survival and profitability of family farms and to conserve biodiversity. While synthesizing information of the biophysical aspects of ecosystem services, the book also outlines the socioeconomic and policy dimensions, including appropriate incentive models to enhance adoption of agroforestry so that society at large can enjoy these important benefits

Agroforestry has great potential for reducing deforestation and forest degradation, providing rural livelihoods and habitats for species outside formally protected land, and alleviating resource-use pressure on conservation areas. However, widespread adoption of agroforestry innovations is still constrained by a myriad of factors including design features of candidate agroforestry innovations, perceived needs, policies, availability and distribution of factors of production, and perception of risks. Understanding the science, and factors that regulate the adoption, of agroforestry and how they impact the implementation of agroforestry is vitally important. Agroforestry for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Science and Practice examines design features and management practices of some agroforestry practices and their impact on biodiversity and the ecosystem services it delivers. It also identifies policy issues for facilitating adoption of desirable agroforestry practices and gradual diminution of undesirable policies.

Payments for ecosystem services are hoped to encourage and promote sustainable practices in agricultural systems via financial incentives. Through methodological analysis and case studies, this book provides several examples of successful programs and aims to transfer them to other regions of the world.

Planting trees in the agricultural landscape, in the form of establishing agroforestry systems, has a significant role to play in potentially improving ecosystem services, such as increased biodiversity, reduced soil erosion, increased soil carbon storage, improved food security and nutrition, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. While the role of trees in agroforestry systems in improving ecosystem services has been researched, studies in new systems/regions and new agroforestry system designs are still emerging. This Special Issue includes selected papers presented at the 4th World Congress on Agroforestry, Montpellier, France 20–22 May 2019, and other volunteer papers. The scope of articles includes all aspects of agroforestry systems.

Agroforestry systems are believed to provide a number of ecosystem services; however, until recently evidence in the agroforestry literature supporting these perceived benefits has been lacking. This volume brings together a series of papers from around the globe to address recent findings on the ecosystem services and environmental benefits provided by agroforestry. Specifically, this volume examines four major ecosystem services and environmental benefits: (1) carbon sequestration, (2) biodiversity conservation, (3) soil enrichment and (4) air and water quality. Past and present evidence clearly indicates that agroforestry, as part of a multifunctional working landscape, can be a viable land-use option that, in addition to alleviating poverty, offers a number of ecosystem services and environmental benefits. This realization should help promote agroforestry and its role as an integral part of a multifunctional working landscape the world over. The book should be particularly useful to students, professionals, researchers and policy makers involved in natural resource management, agroforestry, biodiversity conservation, and environmental management. Reprinted from Agroforestry Systems, Volume 76, No. 1 (2009)

The Role of Ecosystem Services in Sustainable Food Systems reveals, in simple terms, the operational definition, concepts and applications of ecosystem services with a focus on sustainable food systems. The book presents case studies on both geographical and production system-wide considerations. Initial chapters discuss concepts, methodologies and the tools needed to understand ecosystem services in the broader food system. Middle and later chapters present different perspectives from case studies of ecosystem services derived from some of the key sustainable food production systems used by farmers, along with discussions on the challenges of deriving full benefits and how they can be overcome. Researchers, students, scientists, development practitioners and policymakers will welcome this reference as they continue their work related to sustainable food systems. Introduces the concept of ecosystem services in simple terms for a wide readership Provides an explanation of sustainable food systems Contains the tools to identify and quantify ecosystem services in sustainable food systems Identifies ecosystem services in specific systems utilized for sustainable food systems Categorizes the challenges of deriving maximum benefits of ecosystem services

As a dynamic interface between agriculture and forestry, agroforestry has only recently been formally recognized as a relevant part of land use with 'trees outside forest' in important parts of the world-but not everywhere yet. The Sustainable Development Goals have called attention to the need for the multifunctionality of landscapes that simultaneously contribute to multiple goals. In the UN decade of landscape restoration, as well as in response to the climate change urgency and biodiversity extinction crisis, an increase in global tree cover is widely seen as desirable, but its management by farmers or forest managers remains contested. Agroforestry research relates tree-soil-crop- livestock interactions at the plot level with landscape-level analysis of social-ecological systems and efforts to transcend the historical dichotomy between forest and agriculture as separate policy domains. An 'ecosystem services' perspective quantifies land productivity, flows of water, net greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity conservation, and combines an 'actor' perspective (farmer, landscape manager) with that of 'downstream' stakeholders (in the same watershed, ecologically conscious consumers elsewhere, global citizens) and higher-level regulators designing land-use policies and spatial zoning.