Ecosystem services and agroforestry

Different agroforestry systems provide all types of ecosystem services in varying degrees. Besides providing, for instance, food, timber and energy as provisioning services, and recreational and landscape benefits as cultural services, agroforestry provides especially regulating and supporting ecosystem services as a regenerative farming practice.

Ecosystem services are linked to human wellbeing

“Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” which contribute to constituents of human wellbeing – basic material for good life, health, good social relations, security, and freedom of choice and action. Conversely, changes in human wellbeing constituents also affect ecosystem services. Indirect drivers of changes such as market, policy framework, legal framework, consumption choices and beliefs can lead to direct drivers of change affecting ecosystem services such as changes in local land use and cover, species introduction or removal, technology adaptation and use, and harvest and resource consumption.

Ecosystem services are classified in four categories: provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. Provisioning services include products that we can obtain from the ecosystem such as food, fibre, fuel, timber, and water. Regulating services refer to regulation of ecosystems and benefits associated with them such as regulation of floods, drought, disease, and erosion. Supporting services support existence of other ecosystem services and they include services such as watershed management, nutrient cycling, photosynthesis, and soil formation. Cultural services include cultural identity, cultural heritage, spiritual services, inspirational services, aesthetic services, and recreation and tourism which are demonstrated in cultural and artistic expressions, educational values, cultural and heritage landscapes, and knowledge on traditional cultivation systems.

Ecosystem services require genetic, population, and species variation, and variation in ecosystems’ structure, function, and composition to sustain ecosystem services. Diverse regional species composition supports ecosystem stability, genetic variation supports long-term viability of agriculture, and ecosystem processes can be modified by changes in species composition.

Agroforestry systems support ecosystem services

Different agroforestry systems provide all types of ecosystem services in varying degrees. Besides providing, for instance, food, timber and energy as provisioning services, and recreational and landscape benefits as cultural services, agroforestry provides especially regulating and supporting ecosystem services as a regenerative farming practice. Supporting services can include, for instance, soil formation through organic matter inputs from plants and animals, and increased biodiversity. Regulating services can include, for instance, reduced soil erosion, increased carbon capture, and improved water conservation. Each agroforestry system has their own unique composition of ecosystem services at a local and regional level.

In general, agroforestry systems alter biodiversity due to changed interactions between species. Grazing animals may create favourable habitats for plant and insect species dependent on grazing. Compared with conventional monocultures in agriculture or plantation forestry, agroforestry systems often enhance biodiversity.

High level of interactions between ecosystem services

In agroforestry, benefits from ecosystem services strengthen the structures of the system itself, especially through regulating and supporting ecosystem services. Windbreaks improve habitats for livestock and pollinating insects, protect from pollution spread by wind, reduce wind erosion and increase crop production. In riparian buffers nutrient leaching and water erosion from the surrounding land area is reduced, new habitats for increasing biodiversity are created, water quality is improved, and shade is created which creates suitable habitats for fish during summer heat and reduces overgrowth of the riverbed. In forest grazing, biodiversity of grazing dependent natural species is enhanced due to control of more invasive plants by grazing and continuous natural supply of animal manure to the ground. Productivity and health of animals is supported with increased protection from sun and wind. Wider pressure to the use of ecosystems for agricultural production is decreased when the same land area is used for multipurpose production such as wood production and animal production. In silvoarable agroforestry systems, agrobiodiversity can significantly be increased when wider diversity of plants is grown together in one land area when compared with monocultures, nutrient cycling can be increased with plant diversity with different nutrient needs and nutrient binding capacities, carbon sequestration to soil can be increased through diverse organic matter inputs from the plants, and water cycling in the system can be improved through the shading of the ground by plants. All agroforestry systems alter biodiversity which can have long-term beneficial consequences for instance for diversity and number of pollinating insects, resilience against pests and diseases, and maintenance of endangered species.

Diverse benefits for agricultural and forestry production

Due to agrobiodiversity with genetic and species diversity, agroforestry is one of the low-input agricultural systems alongside intercropping, crop rotations, and conservation tillage, which decrease crop failure risk and impacts of pests and diseases. Decreased need for herbicides and pesticides also consequently reduces water contamination. Resilience of agroforestry systems to external disturbances caused by for instance drought, wind and flooding can also be higher compared with conventional monocultures due diversity of plants and their functions in the system. Need for fertilization may be decreased due to interactions between species in the system, for instance, through nitrogen fixing plants. Multifunctionality of agroforestry systems in food, timber and fuel production supports efficient land use.

Regeneration of young forest stands can be enhanced through forest grazing with animals contributing to weed and other undesirable plant control. Forest grazing also contributes to increased biodiversity and support for endangered species in traditional rural habitats due to renewed interactions between animal and plant communities.

Future and climate change

With all the diverse ecosystem services and their associated benefits, agroforestry has potential as a regional risk management tool for climate change, for instance, as trees balance temperatures through evaporation and absorption of water, agroforestry systems have potential to enhance temperature regulation locally not only in rural areas but also in cities. Agroforestry can also be one answer to responding to biodiversity maintenance, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration under changing climate conditions.

The development of nature value markets in the future may create new business opportunities for agroforestry as a regenerative farming practice which supports maintenance, improvement and development of different ecosystem services for human wellbeing.

 

Photo: Tanja Kähkönen

References

Hassan, R., Scholes, R. & Ash, N. (eds). (2025). Ecosystems and human well-being: current state and trends. Findings of the condition and trends working group, The millennium ecosystem assessment series, volume 1. 917 p. Available at: https://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.804.aspx.pdf

Kähkönen, T. & den Herder, M. (2025). Diverse ecosystem services from agroforestry. AF4EU (Agroforestry Business Model Innovation Network) Practice abstract. 1 p.

Mattila, I. (ed.). (2023). Puustoinen maatalous Suomessa. 163 p. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8418297

Ramachandran Nair, Kumar, B. & Nair, V. (2021). An Introduction to Agroforestry: Four Decades of Scientific Developments. Springer, Cham. 666 p.

Rigueiro-Rodríguez, A., Fernández-Núñez, E., González-Hernández, P., McAdam, J.H., Mosquera-Losada, M.R. (2009). Agroforestry systems in Europe: productive, ecological and social perspectives. In: Rigueiro-Rodróguez, A., McAdam, J., Mosquera-Losada, M.R. (eds). Agroforestry in Europe: current status and future prospects. Advances in Agroforestry, volume 6. Springer, Dordrecht. pp. 43-65.

Tanja Kähkönen & Michael den Herder