Communities in northern Morocco are vulnerable to increasing water scarcity and food insecurity. Context specific adaptation options thus need to be identified to sustain livelihoods and agroecosystems in this region, and increase the resilience of vulnerable smallholders, and their farming systems, to undesired effects of social-ecological change. This study took a knowledge-based systems approach to explore whether and how tree-based (i.e., agroforestry) options could contribute to meeting these adaptation needs. We analysed local agroecological knowledge of smallholders from the Mèknes–Tafilalet region, to (i) characterise existing farming systems at local landscape scale; (ii) identify possible niches for farm-trees within these systems; and (iii) explore locally perceived barriers to tree-based diversification. An iterative cycle of qualitative interviews, with a purposefully selected sample of 32 farmers, revealed that socio-economic constraints and agroecological conditions in the area differed markedly along a relatively short altitudinal gradient. Agroforestry practices were already integral to all farming systems. Yet, many were at risk of degradation, as water scarcity, low profitability of production systems and uncontrolled grazing constituted critical barriers to the maintenance and diversification of farm-trees. We demonstrate the discriminatory power of local knowledge, to characterise farming conditions at the local landscape scale; and unveil adoption barriers and options for tree-based diversification in northern Morocco.

This perspective discusses multi-functional biomass production systems, which are located, designed, integrated and managed so as to provide specifi c environmental services, in addition to biomass supply. Besides discussing the general concept and outlining a range of different possible applications, we present in somewhat more detail specifi c applications of such systems for the cases of Sweden and India. The overall conclusion is that the environmental benefi ts from a large-scale establishment of multi-functional biomass production systems could be substantial. Given that suitable mechanisms to put a premium on the provided environmental services can be identifi ed and implemented, additional revenues can be linked to biomass production systems and this could enhance the socioeconomic attractiveness and signifi cantly improve the competitiveness of the produced biomass on the market. The provision of additional environmental services also contributes to local sustainable development, which is in many cases a prerequisite for local support for the production systems.

Citizen science has been gaining momentum in the UnitedPalabras Clave: conservación de suelo virgen, cooperación para el desarrollo, desarrollo de capacidad noacadémica, evaluación de la biodiversidad, investigación participativa, manejo de recursos naturales

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