Modelling agroforestry systems

Abstract

Agroforestry was very probably the first form of agriculture in the world, when hunters and collectors gradually selected plants in the forest and reproduced them to produce food. Since then, agriculture has become more specialized and what we imagine under the word agriculture now are fields of pure crops. In the last two decades, agroforestry research has tried to depart from this descriptive approach—although for the most complex agroforestry systems, it remains largely undone and necessary—and enter in an experimental approach to foster the improvement of these systems. Recently, research on agroforestry systems (AFS) has focused on their contribution to public goods, supported by the monetary evaluation of services provided by ecosystems to the society. On the biophysical side, the inherent complexity of agroforestry systems is here multiplied by the upscaling issue: the activity that provides the service is done at a scale that is lower than the one relevant to evaluate the service. The main objective of the workshop was to elaborate the strategy of the PCP concerning the modelling efforts that will be done for the coming years. We focused on the needs, goals and choice of models. A second objective was to define the resources needed to implement this strategy and begin to pave the ways toward the consecution of these resources. Finally, we also wanted to enhance present and future collaborations between PCP and modelling partners.