Introduction: Challenges for Agroforestry in the New Millennium

Abstract

Agroforestry systems (AFS) are becoming increasingly relevant due to their multiple roles and services: biodiversity conservation, adaptation and mitigation of climate change, restoration of degraded ecosystems, and tools for rural development. This chapter summarizes advances in agroforestry research and practice and raises questions as to the effectiveness of AFS to solve the development and environmental challenges the world presents us today. The initial emphasis of the research in AFS was on showing how AFS could be a viable productive alternative, focusing on AFS design, multipurpose tree species and their functions and products, and financial evaluations. Later, responding to increasing environmental and rural development issues worldwide, research turned to the challenges of alleviating poverty and improving food security. In the last decade emphasis has been on the role that AFS can play in adaptation to climate change, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions through fixation of atmospheric carbon. Currently AFS are expected to achieve a compromise among productive and environmental functions. Apparently, AFS can play a significant role in rural development even in the most challenging socioeconomic and ecological conditions. Considerable funding is spent on projects to enhance productivity and sustainability of smallholders agroforestry. These projects and programs face many questions and challenges related to the integration of traditional knowledge to promote the most suitable systems for each situation; access to markets for AFS products, and scaling up of successful AFS. This book gathers fresh and novel contributions to provide alternative and sometimes departing insights into these pressing questions.