Agroforestry-Based Ecosystem Services: Reconciling Values of Humans and Nature in Sustainable Development

Abstract

Agroforestry as active area of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research aims to bridge several artificial divides that have respectable historical roots but hinder progress toward sustainable development goals. These include: (1) The segregation of “forestry trees” and “agricultural crops”, ignoring the continuity in functional properties and functions; the farm-scale “Agroforestry-1” concept seeks to reconnect perennial and annual, woody and nonwoody plants across the forest–agriculture divide to markets for inputs and outputs. (2) The identification of agriculture with provisioning services and the assumed monopoly of forests on other ecosystem services (including hydrology, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation) in the landscape, challenged by the opportunity of “integrated” solutions at landscape scale as the “Agroforestry-2” concept explores. (3) The gaps among local knowledge of farmers/agroforesters as landscape managers, the contributions of social and ecological sciences, the path-dependency of forestry, environmental or agricultural institutions, and emerging policy responses to “issue attention cycles” in the public debate, as is the focus of the “Agroforestry-3” concept. Progress in understanding social–ecological–economic systems at the practitioners–science–policy interface requires that both instrumental and relational values of nature are appreciated, as they complement critical steps in progressing issue cycles at the three scales. A set of hypotheses can guide further research.

Kaleka Agroforest in Central Kalimantan (Indonesia): Soil Quality, Hydrological Protection of Adjacent Peatlands, and Sustainability

“…As indicated in an overview of agroforestry-based ecosystem services [88], the benefits that wider society derives from a well-functioning agroecosystem (the definition of ecosystem services) need to be understood at the level of interacting zones and land uses rather than as standard value per unit area multiplied by the area involved. Maintaining viable and culturally embedded wet land use in the riparian transition zone of peat domes makes it possible to hydrologically restore the peat domes that are threatened by networks of drainage canals constructed with unrealistic expectations of agricultural intensification of the area.…”

Implemensi Literasi Sains dalam Pembelajaran IPA di Sekolah Dasar

“…Sebagaimana yang dikemukakan bahwa Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam (IPA) adalah salah satu cara manusia yang mencakup aktivitas psikologis, pengetahuan, serta cara mengatur maupun mengukur, yang bisa dicoba lagi keabsahannya didasarkan oleh perilaku kuriositas, ketetapan hati, kegigihan yang dilaksanakan oleh perseorangan untuk mendekap rahasia jagat raya. Natural science deals with how to logically find out about the universe, so that science is not just a group domination of understanding in the form of fact, theories, and grounds, but also ways of discovery (van Noordwijk, 2021). Kegiatan belajar mengajar sains memusatkan dalam pembagian profesionalisme secara nyata pada peserta didik tentang potensi pengembangan, memungkinkan siswa untuk memahami lingkungan alam melalui proses penemuan, yang akan membantu siswa memperoleh pengalaman tentang lingkungan alam.…”

Agroforestry-Based Ecosystem Services

“…Beyond directly responding to the three questions raised in the call for papers for the special issue, the concept of agroforestry-based ecosystem services itself evolved [21] as part of the broader debates on Sustainable Development Goals and the multifunctionality of land use, understood as a mosaic of forests, agroforestry, agriculture, and urban areas, at coarse or finely grained mosaic of interacting components. New perspectives that were introduced in [20] but elaborated in [21] include the balance between relational (two-way, reciprocal relations) and instrumental (goal-oriented, substitutable) value articulation on ecosystem functions relevant for human well-being at local, national, and global scales. Whereas the 'ecosystem services' language emphasized human benefits, part of which can also be substituted by technical means (potentially at higher cost) and are thus nice to have but not essential.…”