Tropical agroforestry and ecosystem services: trade-off analysis for better design strategies

Publication date: 03/06/2019
Extent: 44 pages

Contributions by: Rolando Cerda, CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza), Costa Rica; Luis Orozco-Aguilar, The University of Melbourne, Australia; Norvin Sepúlveda, CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza), Costa Rica; Jenny Ordoñez and Geovana Carreño-Rocabado, CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza) and World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Costa Rica; and Freddy Amores, Willan Caicedo, Samuel Oblitas and Eduardo Somarriba, CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza), Costa Rica

Chapter synopsis: A large body of research has documented a wide list of provisioning and regulating services from tropical agroforestry systems (AFS). This chapter offers an overview of ecosystem services delivered by tropical AFS and presents practical approaches for trade-off analysis between ecosystem services and plant biodiversity for better design (or redesign) and management of AFS. It is structured as follows: Section 2 highlights the main provisioning and regulating services provided by tropical AFS (covering pest and disease regulation, nutrient cycling and soil quality, carbon sequestration, and water regulation); Section 3 provides an overview of practical approaches to assess trade-offs; and Section 4 presents a case study of trade-off analysis. This last section uses data from a so-called Sentinel Landscape–El Tuma-La Dalia in Nicaragua, and is useful to derive recommendations to enhance the delivering of ecosystem services from five AFS (cocoa AFS, coffee AFS, pasture-silvopastoral, grain fields, and homegardens).

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2018.0041.24