Ecosystem services as an enabling framework towards the transition to sustainable silvopastoral systems.

Abstract

There is a general consensus that land-use practices that have shaped agro-ecosystems in the decades since the 1950’s have had a focus on the provision of food and fibres disregarding the role of important ecological functions that support the provision of these goods, thus jeopardizing their long-term sustainability. Priority to food and fibre production has also neglected other important functions such as regulation of water flows, water purification, food provision in other systems (e.g. fresh water) and maintenance of locally adapted genetic diversity, in addition to multiple cultural services, including a higher capacity to cope with environmental variability and economic fluctuations. Assessing context-dependent sustainability (ecological, social and economic) is necessary to explore pathways towards high-nature value agro-ecosystems.

Silvo-pastoral systems possess characteristics that can enable the fulfilment of multiple functions by pastoral-ecosystems including economic and non-economic, private and public goods and services. However, the transformation of current land-use practices requires changes at several levels including farm-level decision making and the design of instruments that provide suitable context conditions and stimulate change. These changes need to be supported by the best-possible knowledge at the interface of the functioning of silvo-pastoral ecosystems and the design and alignment of policy instrument mixes. Hence, there is a need to gather existing knowledge, innovate to achieve technical and economic feasibility and explore new modes of governance that can facilitate the transition to and the sustainability of multifunctional systems. This knowledge needs to be centered on the local ecological, socio-economic and institutional conditions since current design and evaluation of agri-environment schemes and Rural Development Plans are often criticized for the difficulties of identifying the most effective schemes or “best practice examples”, since results are often highly context dependent.

This working group covers a range of studies that advance the knowledge spanning from the bio-physical functions that underpin the provision of ecosystem services in silvo-pastoral systems to the societal benefits and costs associated with these functions, and the integration of this knowledge in policy instrument design.