A social–ecological approach to managing multiple agro-ecosystem services

TLDR

Agro‑ecosystem sustainability relies on delivering a full suite of ecosystem services, not just provisioning, and requires exploring new social and ecological dimensions in agricultural landscapes. The study proposes a social–ecological framework for service‑based management of agro‑ecosystems that explicitly represents ecosystem and social systems and their dynamic links. The framework illustrates how management practices with multiple effects can drive the provision of multiple services through dynamic links between ecosystem and social systems. The authors identify collective multiservice management design as a key research issue and call for innovations in stakeholder organizations and tools to foster synergy between ecosystem functioning and social dynamics amid ecological complexity.

Abstract

The sustainability of agro-ecosystems depends on their ability to deliver an entire package of multiple ecosystem services, rather than provisioning services alone. New social and ecological dimensions of agricultural management must be explored in agricultural landscapes, to foster this ability. We propose a social–ecological framework for the service-based management of agro-ecosystems, specified through an explicit and symmetric representation of the ecosystem and the social system, and the dynamic links between them. It highlights how management practices, with their multiple effects, could drive the provision of multiple services. Based on this framework, we have identified the design of collective multiservice management as a key research issue. It requires innovations in stakeholder organizations and tools to foster synergy between ecosystem functioning and social dynamics, given the complexity and uncertainties of ecological systems.