Search Results (28)

The Colombian Amazon faces persistent tensions between biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods, while territorially grounded productive alternatives remain limited. This study assesses the feasibility of a cacao-based agroforestry system as a sustainable value-chain strategy in Puerto Nariño (Amazonas) and Puerto Caicedo (Putumayo), Colombia. Using participatory action research and mixed methods (100 semi-structured interviews, participatory mapping, techno-economic scenario modeling, and MICMAC structural analysis), the study integrates local knowledge, productivity projections, and territorial governance assessment. The analysis indicates that cacao can be integrated into Amazonian chagra systems without introducing external species, preserving sociocultural compatibility and ecological continuity. Under empirically calibrated productivity assumptions and nine cost–price scenarios, projected annual revenues range from USD 1200 to 2550 per hectare, with an average net present value of USD 3596 over 30 years. MICMAC results identify community governance and institutional articulation as key enabling conditions shaping value-chain feasibility in both territories. Rather than proposing a universal model, the findings suggest that cacao-based agroforestry may strengthen food security and income diversification when embedded in locally legitimate institutions. These results are prospective and should be further assessed through pilot implementations and participatory monitoring. Full article

The study examines the recent transformation of traditional agricultural landscapes in the transition zone between Sierra de las Nieves and the Western Costa del Sol (Andalusia, Spain), one of the European regions where urban development pressure has reached its peak in replacing agricultural land with residential and tourism uses. Through a diachronic analysis of historical orthophotos (1956–2025), statistical sources (Agricultural Census, SIGPAC), and fieldwork, land-use changes and their impact on ecological functionality and territorial resilience are quantified. Results reveal a widespread loss of agricultural land—exceeding 68% overall—particularly severe in Benahavís, where more than 70% of farmland has disappeared, largely converted to urban areas. In contrast, in Istán and Ojén, the predominant trend is the renaturalization of abandoned agricultural land. These dynamics illustrate a coastal–inland territorial model that epitomizes the Mediterranean “territorial consumption” process, in which tourism-driven urbanization fragments traditional agroforestry mosaics. The study concludes that, despite their regression, traditional agricultural landscapes continue to play a key role in water regulation, soil conservation, and wildfire risk mitigation. Their restoration and maintenance are proposed as a replicable strategy for climate change adaptation and for reconciling territorial sustainability with economic development in other Mediterranean regions under intense urban pressure. Full article

This article addresses agroforestry knowledge and practices of peasant and quilombola women. It draws from research using ethnographic methods, conducted in two different Brazilian communities: with peasant women in the municipality of Pinhão, Paraná, Brazil, and with quilombola women in the Quilombo Ribeirão Grande-Terra Seca in the municipality of Barra do Turvo, in the Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, Brazil. This investigation demonstrates the connection between the exploitation of nature and the oppression of women, and it identifies counter-practices that value cooperation and mutual care. It highlights the importance of recovering ancestral knowledge and resisting the rupture with nature imposed by colonialism. The conclusion indicates that these agroforestry practices play a crucial role in the lives of women and in their resistance to the monocultural model and the market economy in both communities studied. In both communities, women play a central role in sustaining agroforestry practices as forms of resistance, care, and cultural preservation. In Pinhão, peasant women uphold biodiversity and traditional knowledge through everyday practices like seed exchange and in the Quilombo Ribeirão Grande-Terra Seca, quilombola women link agroforestry to identity, territorial defense, and Black resistance. Full article

Territorial transformations in Indigenous regions are shaped by intersecting ecological, political, and cultural dynamics. In San Juan Bautista Valle Nacional, Oaxaca, the construction of the Cerro de Oro dam disrupted river flows, displaced livelihoods, and triggered the decline of irrigated agriculture. This study examines the long-term impacts of these changes on land use, demographics, and cultural practices, emphasizing women’s contributions to community resilience. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates geospatial analysis (1992–2021), census data (2000–2020), documentary review, and ethnographic fieldwork, including participatory mapping. Results show a shift toward seasonal rainfed agriculture, fluctuating forest cover, and a rise in female-headed households. Women have emerged as central actors in adapting to change through practices such as seed saving, agroforestry, and backstrap-loom weaving. These spatially grounded practices, enacted across varied socio-ecological zones, sustain food systems, preserve biodiversity, and reinforce biocultural memory. Although often overlooked in formal governance, women’s territorial agency plays a vital role in shaping land use and community adaptation. This research highlights the need to recognize Indigenous women’s roles in managing change and sustaining territorial heritage. Acknowledging these contributions is essential for building inclusive, culturally grounded, and sustainable development pathways in regions facing structural and environmental pressures. Full article

Water is a crucial resource in agriculture, but climate change has led to more frequent droughts, particularly at the start of the growing season, adversely affecting crop yields. This paper evaluates soil water retention capacity (SWRC) in the Protected Water Management Area Žitný ostrov, which is home to Slovakia’s most fertile soils and significant groundwater reserves. In our study, we adopted a new methodological approach and developed an algorithm for weighting selected physical parameters from the valued soil-ecological units (VSEUs) database, applicable to larger territorial units. To estimate SWRC, we used an algorithm based on the physical parameters of VSEUs, reclassifying them into 10 categories of cumulative water retention capacity (CWRC) and mapping SWRC in the model area. Most of the area demonstrates high water retention due to groundwater, but these sources are being increasingly depleted. Agriculture, as a significant contributor to groundwater pollution, must adapt to climate change by implementing crop management practices that reduce agrochemical seepage and preserve water supply. Regenerative agriculture and agroforestry, which enhance soil properties, are proposed as viable solutions. Additionally, infrastructure such as dams, ponds, and rainwater harvesting systems, along with the expansion of wetlands, can help capture and store water in areas with lower retention capacity. This study aims to identify critical zones with varying retention capacities and recommends crop rotation adjustments to prevent agrochemical seepage and enhance water retention. These practices are essential for sustaining agriculture while protecting water resources amidst global climate challenges. Full article

The small Mediterranean islands, unique geographical places where coastlines and mountains converge due to volcanic genesis, are among the most threatened environments on Earth. Their marginality, which has historically led to their use as places of detention and punishment, coupled with the extreme climate and rugged geomorphology shaped by terracing practices, has resulted in the loss of systematic land management. This loss stems from the abandonment of cropland in favor of alternative activities and migrations, impacting essential ecosystem services such as the water cycle, soil fertility, and the cultural landscape. The need to counteract the land degradation in these vulnerable areas has been acknowledged for some Mediterranean small islands, including the UNESCO heritage site of Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands, Sicily, Italy—an especially captivating location due to its active volcano. The agricultural abandonment on terraces, intensively cultivated with olives groves and vineyards until the mid-20th century, has rendered the area highly fragile and susceptible to risks such as fires and soil erosion, particularly as a consequence of extreme weather events, as proven in 2022, which saw a destructive fire followed by storms. To mitigate the negative effects of hydrogeological disruptions, the implementation of integrated landscape management—managing ecosystems at the landscape level—has been proposed. Specifically, an agroforestry intervention, coupled with the restoration of dry stone walls, the shaping of soil slopes by recovering the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and the design of water-collecting devices incorporated with the traditional hydraulic knowledge, may be proposed as a strategic approach to minimize the soil erosion risks, adapt to climate change, and extensively restore the use of traditional agrobiodiversity to support the local economy and tourism. A pilot intervention by local stakeholders based on these principles is described as an emblematic agrobiodiversity-based landscape design project in a vulnerable area, aiming at the preservation of the cultural landscapes of the small Mediterranean islands. Full article

Socioeconomic factors are increasingly considered in the study of forest fires. However, there is a gap in the literature on the possible relationship between basic services and infrastructures such as small rural schools and forest fires. Population decline in rural areas is leading to an increase in forest fire risk and social vulnerability to forest fires due to the abandonment of traditional agroforestry practices and the expansion of unmanaged forest canopy. In addition, rural schools are supposed to make rural municipalities livable and promote the people’s sense of community. In parallel, there is controversy over the closure of small local schools in sparsely populated rural areas worldwide. Our study identified that the forest area burned in the province of Avila (Central Spain), during the period 1996 to 2023, was higher in municipalities without rural primary schools. The presence of rural schools was as statistically significant as the influence of orographic variations of the territory, the number of incipient fires, and the reduction of population density during the same period. Our work contributes to highlighting the potential links between the decline of essential services in rural areas and the increase in forest fire risk, to urge policymakers to take a collaborative and holistic view. Full article

In this study, agroforestry systems (AFSs) are represented by zonal type using the example of agricultural lands of the administrative districts of the Volgograd region for the first time. The average percentage of forest cover in the territories for these categories of land was 0.9%, with the following distribution by zone: real steppe—1.3%; dry steppe—0.97%; and semidesert—0.6%. Cartographic analysis of the spatial distribution of areas of artificial forest plantations, presented in the form of background cartograms, showed the greatest spatial asymmetry and variability in the forest cover index in the semidesert zone (As = 1.68; Ex = −4.08). This is due to the large variation in indicators by occupied space, namely AFS, agricultural land, and arable land. The calculated area of arable land under AFS protection averaged 35% for the region, with the following distribution by zone: real steppe—47% of the area of the zone; dry steppe—22%; and semidesert—82%. The author’s methodological approach presents the exposed AFS area of arable land as open and closed territories. The open territory of the spring period (March) is land at risk of deflation since it is completely free of plants (black fallows, areas covered by spring crops, and tilled crops). It makes up 67% of the exposed area of AFSs. The annual removal of soil from this area of the region was calculated via mathematical analysis. It amounted to 3.08 × 10⁷ tons. Analysis of the AFS species composition showed the following distribution of species: deciduous species—86%; mixed species—8%; and coniferous—6%. This model can be applied to many arid areas to calculate deflationary losses and the amount of additional AFSs needed. Full article

The purpose of the study is an economic assessment of the effectiveness of agroforestry based on determining the value of ecosystem services of an afforested model land object and extrapolating the data obtained to the territory of the south of the Volga upland with identical natural and economic conditions to the model. The study presents a methodology for the economic assessment of ecosystem goods and services of forested agricultural landscapes based on the modern classification of ecosystem services: CICES. It is established that the economic value of the regional ecosystem product provided by forested lands in the dry steppe is USD 1323 per 1 ha of agroforest landscape per year (price for 2021 on average for 30 years). Of these, regulatory and maintenance services account for 52% of the total economic value, security services—45%, and cultural services—3%. The projected economic value of ecosystem services that will be provided by afforested lands in the south of the Volga upland, the price for 2025, taking into account inflation, is estimated at almost USD 20 million. This value is a sufficient justification for conducting forest reclamation works in the region and providing recommendations for their necessity for small enterprises and farms. Full article

The aim of this study was to study the effectiveness and economic efficiency of the impact of agroforestry complexes on the adaptation of agriculture to climate change in the south of the Russian Plain. It has been established that this manifests quantitatively in a significant decrease (by almost a third) in the area of wind-destroyed lands and drought-dead crops in farms protected by forest strips compared with open agricultural territories. The calculation of direct damage prevented by protective forest plantations from degradation and loss of soil fertility as a result of dust storms and indirect damage prevented by protective forest plantations from crop loss as a result of extreme droughts shows that the total amount of remuneration received by farmers from agroforestry in connection with the placement of a forest-forming element in their fields is EUR 317–1239 ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. This value is the contribution of agroforestry to adaptation to climate change and is subject to zonal dynamics—it depends on natural and climatic conditions. The application developed as part of this research has value for decision makers, since it allows for preliminary assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of agroforestry for various areas of farms and various natural zones. Full article

The creation of protective forest plantations on agricultural land is a long-term and capital-intensive investment aimed at creating sustainable agroforest landscapes. The purpose of the ongoing scientific research was to identify areas and create protective plantings, which will bring maximum effects. The methodology for achieving this goal is based on cartographic methods. Modern means of geoinformation modeling of territories and remote data make it possible to identify and follow the components of landscapes to obtain their quantitative characteristics. The result of the work carried out is a cartographic model of the study area, which allows for the analysis of the sufficiency of the number of existing forest plantations to ensure a sustainable development of the territories. The theoretical basis for determining the sufficiency of the number of forest plantations is the idea of the optimal forest cover of the territories. A review and analysis of existing points of view on the issue of optimal forest cover made it possible to identify the minimum parameters of protective forest cover. For the region of research, it is equal to 3%. The actual average value of the indicator of protective forest cover, calculated on the basis of the area of the entire study area, is 0.8%. The search for factors that determine the high efficiency of agroforestry measures made it possible to perform a differentiated assessment of the need for agroforestry measures. The ability to identify priority sites for the creation of protective forest plantations in these areas will bring maximum effects. The main principles of the search for areas of priority development are taking into account the geomorphological features of the study area, as well as the differences in the forest-growing properties of soils. The range of protective forest cover values for six geomorphologically different parts of the study area is from 0.6% to 2.7%. An analysis of the mutual arrangement of protective forest plantations and soil contours made it possible to identify the localization of spatial areas. When planning the creation of new protective forest plantations, priority is given to the most fertile lands, the indicators of protective forest cover of which are minimal. Full article

The Sateré-Mawé Brazilian indigenous people cultivate the guarana liana in biodiverse agroforests that incorporate many species, mainly trees, and produce food, medicines, fuel and income. The objective of this study was to evaluate the soil fertility in nineteen indigenous guarana agroforestry systems (AFSs) compared with areas of adjacent forests in the Andirá–Marau Indigenous Land—an ancestral territory of the Sateré-Mawé people. Soils in both locations showed low natural fertility, with levels of most macronutrients below the minimum agronomic reference levels. Higher C and soil organic matter (SOM) content was observed in the forest soils and may be related to greater vegetation cover and higher litter production. However, the maintenance of the average levels of most nutrients in the soil of the AFSs, at the same level as under the forests, suggests that efficient nutrient cycling is taking place. In these conditions, the management of organic matter seems to be essential to maintain the productivity of guarana AFSs since levels of C, SOM and organic N were not considered as low as those of most of the other soil attributes that were evaluated. The high tree diversity in the guarana agroforests, including N-fixing species, may also contribute to efficient nutrient cycling and maintenance of the soil food web. The results suggest that the addition of limestone, green manure practices and the reincorporation of organic residues from guarana processing, among other sources, can be a low-cost alternative to improve soil fertility and increase guarana production in the AFS under study. Full article

Upgrading the scale of agricultural production and the effectiveness of protective afforestation is based on the strategy of identifying similar crop production conditions. The given research identifies the territories that require different approaches to forest reclamation. The research is based on the use of remote data as well as geoinformation research methods. The area for investigation is the territory of the right bank of the Khoper River in the Volgograd region. This territory is characterized by the distribution of the most fertile soils in the world, southern chernozems and typical chernozems. The study area is a long-standing historical center of agricultural production, and the task of protecting and increasing the fertility of cultivated soils is very urgent for this territory. The investigation of the catchment areas for identifying spatial patterns is an important methodological aspect of the present research. The studies were carried out within the network of catchments in ravines and gullies. The parameters of the areas of each catchment were used to calculate the specific indicators characterizing the territory. Mapping the territory of the research area made it possible to identify the range of parameters which characterize the erosion process as well as the parameters that cause its development. The studies of the interdependence of land structure and relief parameters made it possible to identify the processes for evaluating the agroecological state of the territories and their typification. These parameters include: erosive dissection, km/km²; the density of ravine tops, units/km²; the area of arable land in the catchment located on slopes with a steepness of more than 3°, %; and the nonforested area of slopes with a steepness of more than 8°. The values of indicators estimated on the basis of statistical scoring procedures became the basis for the allocation of four groups of conditional agroecological states of territories: normal, risk, crisis, and disaster. These groups differ in the set of reclamation measures used and their focus and scope. Full article

The chestnut tree is an important forestry species worldwide, as well as a valuable food resource. Over recent years, Portugal has shown an increasing trend in chestnut tree area, as well as increases in production, hinting at the socioeconomic relevance of this agro-forestry species. In this study, bioclimatic indices are applied to analyse the spatial distribution of chestnut trees in mainland Portugal, namely growing degree days (GDD; 1900–2400 °C), annual mean temperature (AMT; 8–15 °C), summer days with maximum temperature below 32 °C (NTX), and annual precipitation (PRE; 600–1600 mm). These indices are assessed for the baseline (IBERIA01, 1989–2005) and future climates (EURO-CORDEX: 2021–2040, 2041–2060, and 2061–2080) under two forcing pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), also taking into account the chestnut tree land cover. For the baseline, the GDD showed only 10% suitability for chestnut tree cultivation in southern Portugal, whereas much higher values are found in the north of the country, and at higher altitudes (50–90%). For the AMT, higher elevation areas in northern Portugal show almost 100% suitability. Concerning NTX, the suitability reduces from the west (100–90%) to the east (40%). Regarding PRE, the suitability is heterogeneous throughout the territory, with areas under 50%. A new Chestnut Suitability Index (CSI) was then computed, which incorporates information from the four previous indices. The CSI reveals a suitability ranging from 100 to 75% in the north, while central and southern Portugal show values from 25 to 50%. For future climates, a progressive reduction in CSI was found, particularly for RCP8.5 and in the long-term period. Changes in bioclimatic conditions may restrict the 100% suitability to a narrow area in the north of the country. These reductions in chestnut bioclimatic suitability may have socio-economic and ecological implications for the management of the important agro-forestry species. Full article

The dehesa is an anthropic complex ecosystem typical of some areas of Spain and Portugal, with a key role in soil and biodiversity conservation and in the search for a balance between production, conservation and ecosystem services. For this reason, it is essential to have tools that allow its characterization, as well as to monitor and support decision-making to improve its sustainability. A multipurpose and scalable tool has been developed and validated, which combines several low-cost technologies, computer vision methods and RGB aerial orthophotographs using open data sources and which allows for automated agroforestry inventories, identifying and quantifying units with important ecological significance such as: trees, groups of trees, ecosystem corridors, regenerated areas and sheets of water. The development has been carried out from images of the national aerial photogrammetry plan of Spain belonging to 32 dehesa farms, representative of the existing variability in terms of density of trees, shrub species and the presence of other ecological elements. First, the process of obtaining and identifying areas of interest was automated using WMS services and shapefile metadata. Then, image analysis techniques were used to detect the different ecological units. Finally, a classification was developed according to the OBIA approach, which stores the results in standardized files for Geographic Information Systems. The results show that a stable solution has been achieved for the automatic and accurate identification of ecological units in dehesa territories. The scalability and generalization to all the dehesa territories, as well as the possibility of segmenting the area occupied by trees and other ecological units opens up a great opportunity to improve the construction of models for interpreting satellite images. Full article