PART II
The Ecological Economics of
Agroforestry: Environmental Benefits
and Effects on Deforestation
Tr opical farmers influence biodiversity through their land use decisions, such
as whether to use a piece of land for a diversified agroforestry system or for a
slash-and-burn plot or monoculture plantation or whether to invest in the
intensification of existing agricultural fields or the clearing of forest land for
new fields. One must understand and take such decisions into account when
attempting to promote biodiversity-friendly land use practices. The objective
of this section is to analyze the economic bases of such decisions, focusing on
the valuation of the environmental services of diversified, tree-dominated land
uses and the factors that influence deforestation or conservation of natural
ecosystems by tropical farmers.
The section opens with a discussion of the economics of land use choices,
focusing on the environmental benefits of biodiversity-friendly land use prac-
tices such as agroforestry for land users and society (Chapter 4). Using case
studies from The Sudan, Nigeria, and Peru, the chapter shows that economic
studies have not fully embraced the multiplicity of benefits of agroforestry sys-
tems to farmers and society and that new incentive schemes are needed to
encourage agroforestry and compensate for nonmarket benefits such as biodi-
versity conservation.
Chapter 5 addresses the question of whether and under which conditions
agroforestry is likely to reduce deforestation. Earlier claims that adopting 1 ha
of agroforestry leads to a reduction of 5 (or 10) ha of deforestation are rejected
as unfounded. Instead, a thorough economic analysis is offered of the factors
that may lead to a decrease or increase in deforestation after agroforestry adop-
tion, considering different scenarios with respect to land and forest availability,
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