Editorial: Agroforestry for biodiversity and ecosystem services

Abstract

The 21st century presents humanity with a converging triad of crises: unprecedented biodiversity collapse, escalating climate disruptions, and deepening food insecurity, with over 800 million people enduring chronic hunger ((IPBES, 2023;IPCC, 2023;FAO et al., 2024).These challenges are exacerbated by widespread soil degradation, affecting 33% of the Earth's land surface, threatening agricultural systems worldwide (FAO et al., 2018). While agroforestry-the intentional integration of trees with crops and/or livestock-offers a promising, nature-based solution to harmonize ecological resilience with human prosperity, its potential remains significantly underutilized (Roy et al., 2025;Mlambo and Mufandaedza, 2025).Despite its ancient roots and evolution into a cornerstone of nature-based solutions, agroforestry faces persistent barriers to widespread adoption (Tranchina et al., 2024). Policy fragmentation, including conflicting land-use regulations, weak financial incentives for longterm investments, and gaps in locally adapted knowledge, continues to hinder its implementation (Venn et al.) Addressing these barriers is essential to unlock agroforestry's dual promise: safeguarding planetary health while advancing equitable development.This Research Topic directly addresses this critical need by exploring agroforestry's role in harmonizing biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and sustainable development across diverse landscapes -from semi-arid tropics to temperate woodlands. The nine articles in this collection address three interconnected dimensions: policy frameworks, ecological impacts, and socio-economic dynamics. Through policy analyses, geospatial modelling, and on-the-ground case studies, they provide actionable insights for scaling agroforestry effectively. This editorial synthesizes key findings, underscoring agroforestry's dual capacity to strengthen agricultural productivity and ecological resilience. By integrating native trees with food crops, these systems mitigate habitat fragmentation, sequester carbon, and sustain livelihoods-a critical balance in regions facing land-use conflicts. Collectively, these studies equip farmers, policymakers, and conservationists with evidence-based strategies to mainstream agroforestry. Their methodologies offer replicable pathways to align food security with planetary health, ensuring agroforestry transitions from a niche practice to a cornerstone of sustainable land-use policy.Agroforestry's potential to reconcile biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, and rural livelihoods is well-documented (Mlambo et al., 2024;Ulman and Singh, 2024). However, systemic policy and governance challenges continue to hinder its widespread adoption. A cross-continental narrative review by Venn et al. dissects agroforestry policies in the EU, India, Brazil, and the U.S., revealing stark contrasts in governance frameworks. While Brazil leads in jurisdictional integration-notably through its ABC+ Plan aligning agroforestry with lowcarbon agriculture-the EU and U.S. lag due to misaligned financial incentives (Venn et al.).For instance, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy prioritizes monoculture subsidies, inadvertently disincentivizing tree-crop integration. In India, agroforestry relies on ad hoc initiatives like the Sub-Mission on Agroforestry, which struggles to harmonize with state-level forest laws, and in Brazil, despite progress, dedicated legislation remains absent. These fragmented approaches often relegate agroforestry to jurisdictional gaps between disconnected agricultural, forestry, and environmental policies, stifling its capacity to enhance carbon sequestration, soil health, and biodiversity at scale.