Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UNDERTREES (Creating knowledge for UNDERsTanding ecosystem seRvicEs of agroforEStry systems through a holistic methodological framework)
Période du rapport: 2020-01-01 au 2023-06-30
Farming systems such as agroforestry are highly diversified and complex. They generate multiple benefits to the overall sustainability of agricultural land use, but this complexity also presents challenges in their assessment and management. Current knowledge of the environmental benefits of agroforestry for agricultural production and to tackle the impact of climate change needs to be complemented and integrated with knowledge and experience on socio-economic sustainability to better support policy development to meet climate and green economy goals. The objective of UNDERTREES is to form an international and inter-sectoral network of 15 organisations in Europe, Africa, South America, working on a joint research programme on agroforestry (AF) and ecosystem services (ES) assessment. The participants are academic, government institutions and enterprises that will exchange skills and knowledge leading to key advances in agroforestry systems evaluation and design, and enhancing collaborative research across different continents. Skills and knowledge exchanges with African and South American countries, where agroforestry has a sound historical role in fostering environmental and socio-economical sustainability, will advance agroforestry systems comprehension with significant benefits for the European environment and society. Staff members in the project will develop new skills, will be exposed to new research environments and will have their career perspectives widened. To achieve its aim, UNDERTREES identified research, training, and participatory activities at 16 study sites in 5 biogeographical areas within three thematic areas: agronomic and environmental sustainability, socio-economic sustainability, and policy development.
After a extended period of suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, eleven staff exchanges were carried out involving partners in Europe, Africa and Latin America; 35 more exchanges are planned for the upcoming year. The Dissemination and Exploitation Plan was laid out to facilitate knowledge sharing to the wider public and interested parties. The first UNDERTREES stakeholder networks was set up in Europe and work is underway in Africa and Latin America. The first training school was successfully organised in Pisa, Italy, in September 2022. The event included lectures, workshops, and field days. It created an ideal space for constructive discussions and collaboraitve learning. The first project conference took place in March 2023. Two important reports were completed that addressed methodological challenges in working at field and landscape level. They represent the basis for all future research work carried out.
On 1 January 2016, with the formal adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), governments globally were tasked with developing processes to achieve nationally prioritised targets that incorporate environmental, economic and social sustainability. Navigating the trade-offs between provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting ecosystem services (ES) is essential to achieve sustainability. Agricultural sciences are encouraged to develop further paradigms to respond to the global request of sustainable development facing climate change. Agroforestry (AF), “the deliberate integration of woody vegetation (trees and/or shrubs) as an upper storey on land, with pasture (consumed by animals) or an agricultural crop in the lower storey” (Mosquera-Losada et al., 2009) has risen to prominence as a land use to help address climate change and provide environmental, economic, and social benefits. The tradition of separating between science and practice in agriculture and in forestry has led to untapping opportunities for a functional use of trees in agroecosystems in order to sustain food, fibre and timber production. Trees have great potential to play an important role in the sustainable management of agricultural landscapes increasing ES generated by both traditional and innovative integrated cropping systems. ES are benefits that the human population derive directly or indirectly from ecosystem functions. Supplying the increasing demand for provisioning services (food, energy, minerals) often comes at the cost of decreasing cultural, regulating or supporting services (MEA 2005). Ecosystems need to be in good condition to provide a set of essential services which then deliver benefits and increase wellbeing. Ecosystem condition is measurable with indicators that link between pressures, conditions and ES (EEA, 2015). The ES concept proved applicable for the comprehensive assessment of agroecosystems, highlighting trade-offs among services. However, it needs to be further developed to consider the relationship between the application of agricultural inputs and the resulting negative externalities which may derive from them, e.g. soil losses, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, pesticide resistance, biodiversity losses, contamination of soil or water. In the EU, the area of AF systems is approx. 8.8% of the agricultural land. It is grouped in three main agroforestry categories, with specific subcategories: arable AF; livestock AF; AF with high value trees. Compared to conventional agriculture, AF may contribute significantly to carbon sequestration, increase several regulating ES, e.g. soil conservation, fertility, enhance biodiversity. Positive effects on provisioning ES (food, fibre. timber production) by AF systems seem to be globally unclear compared to conventional agriculture. In tropical regions, AF has been widespread as a traditional land use developed by subsistence farmers and as an important livelihoods option to tackle several challenges addressed in the global development agenda. In the last decades, land-sparing to facilitate the expansion of intensive agriculture has led to decreasing of tree presence on farmland. Intensification of tree crop cultivation, e.g. cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is associated with deforestation and loss of biodiversity and ES. Sustainability assessment of AF systems is commonly focused on a small number of indicators and ES. Until today stakeholder involvement in the assessment process has been poor; this should be increased to complete a holistic framework in which biophysical measurements are complemented by monetary and socio-cultural data. Since traditional and innovative AF systems support several ES and provide environmental benefits, the interest in understanding and furthering knowledge on agroforestry is growing. Recent research includes projects such as AGFORWARD (www.agforward.eu) AGROMIX (www.agromixproject.eu); AGROF-MM (www.agrofmm.eu) providing specialist training; AFINET (www.eurafagroforestry.eu/afinet) to promote and innovate European agroforestry; the creation of an EIP-Agri Focus Group on Agroforestry to fill research gaps. There is a need to build a shared, comprehensive, strengthened methodology for the assessment of ES in agroforestry systems to define new sustainable and efficient practices for land management. Novel research pathways should be designed with an inter-sectoral multi-actor approach to create a holistic methodological framework, such is the objective of UNDERTREES: 1.Go beyond biophysical and monetary evaluation towards a common method for ES assessment at various temporal and spatial scales; 2.Involve stakeholders to map and estimate ES; 3.Adopt multiscale approaches to inform regional, national and EU policymakers.