Ecosystem Services of Agroforestry: An Introduction

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. The term became popular in both scientific literature and common parlance around the turn of the century. The concept of ecosystems as the organisms and the non-living environment with which they interact has been popular for a long time, but it was not until the latter part of the twentieth century that its relevance started getting recognized and the study of the environment and environmental conservation became prominent. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005, carried out by the United Nations with the involvement of all its member states, was a significant landmark in ecosystem research and development. It categorized the ES into four broad groups: Provisioning (products from ecosystems, such as genetic resources, food, fiber, fodder, and freshwater), Regulating (benefits from ecosystem processes, such as the regulation of climate, water, and some human diseases), Cultural (non-material benefits from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation, etc.), and Supporting (biomass production, soil formation, and nutrient cycling, etc. that are necessary for producing all other ES) services. Over the years, ES as applied to agroforestry has come to embrace a wide variety of such services. Two of the prominent ES of AFS – climate-change mitigation and biodiversity conservation are – discussed in Chapters. 20 and 21, respectively. Other, relatively less-studied ones, are clubbed together in Chapter 23.