Prosiding Seminar Agroforestry Systems for Sustaining Rural Development and Protecting Environmental Quality

ABSTRACT The future of rural ecosystems is increasingly dependent on the pattern of landscape or land utilization. Agroforestry systems are recognized as the most common rural landscape in Tropical Asia. They are characterized by complex interactions among social, cultural, economic, institutional, and environmental variables. These interactions create complex man-made landscapes, which significantly affect the function of local and global ecosystems and the services they provide to humans. Agroforestry systems improve natural habitat, species diversity, carbon sequestration, hydrological systems, and modify energy flows and nutrient cycling. Change in ecological conditions within these systems ultimately influences human health and well-being. This paper presents the empirical evidences on the effects of different types of agroforestry systems on the ecosystem functions with regard to rural growth and environmental quality. The research reveals that interaction between rural development and ecosystem dynamics is important to determine the environmental services provided by agroforestry system. In conclusion, study cases have shown that agroforestry is a promising system with respect to enhanced land productivity and better environmental quality as compared to other systems, such as monoculture-plantation, grain cropping and fallowing