Margherita Tranchina

Agroforestry can help to conserve biodiversity and enhance multiple ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, microclimate regulation and nutrient cycling. However, in land planning and biodiversity certification schemes it remains difficult to quantify the effect of agroforestry on biodiversity across time and space. Here we combine insights from a second‐order meta‐analysis, a stakeholder questionnaire, and a review of biodiversity assessment tools to establish a route towards more accurate estimates of agroforestry effects on biodiversity. Via a synthesis of cross‐taxa meta‐analyses, we evaluated the impact of agroforestry and landscape structure on biodiversity. Complementing the literature evidence, we performed a stakeholder questionnaire to determine the perceptions and preferences of stakeholders with regards to biodiversity. The meta‐analyses synthesis indicates predominantly positive or no effects of agroforestry practices on biodiversity, albeit with contextual nuances such as landscape structure and system design. The questionnaire revealed stakeholders' recognition of biodiversity's pivotal role in agroecosystems and a willingness to support methods to assess the effects of agroforestry on biodiversity. There was a preference for user‐friendly, web‐based tools that integrated mapping features and checklists tailored to diverse agroforestry types. Finally, we evaluated 73 existing biodiversity tools in terms of their capability of incorporating agroforestry components. The tools' review revealed limitations in terms of their specificity, accessibility or capacity to encompass multifaceted agroforestry designs. Practical implication. Our three‐faceted approach provided comprehensive insights about the building blocks required to develop an evidence‐based and user‐friendly tool for predicting the effects of agroforestry on biodiversity. Specifically, our interdisciplinary synthesis underscores the potential of agroforestry in promoting biodiversity while emphasizing the need for an evidence‐based, user‐centric tool to effectively assess biodiversity within agroforestry systems, accounting for landscape context and system design. Such a tool should be constructed with input data for different agroforestry types, across taxa and updateable when knowledge gaps are filled.

Despite its potential for fostering farm sustainability, the adoption of agroforestry faces context-dependent challenges, among which the (perceived) shortage of decision-supporting tools and barriers hindering the assessment of economic, environmental, and social benefits. The process of digitalization offers significant opportunities to enhance sustainability, but it remains crucial to foster a human-centric, fair, and sustainable approach. In the context of the DigitAF Horizon Europe project, we present the results of a multi-stakeholder questionnaire aimed at understanding the perceptions of stakeholders regarding agroforestry and digitalization, as well as the needs of these stakeholders for a successful implementation of this agricultural practice. In the questionnaire, there was a specific focus on the need for and the conditions for the use of digital tools and models, such as generalized digital tools, applications and mapping, climate and weather forecasting and recording, farm management and decision support, and agroforestry and environmental tools. The purpose of this survey was to provide insights to inform agroforestry actors and to foster collaborative initiatives that enhance the potential of digital tools to support the design, implementation, and maintenance of effective and sustainable agroforestry in the European context. Our questionnaire was completed by stakeholders from seven European countries, including farmers, academics, policy actors, farm advisors, and actors in the value chain with an interest in agroforestry. Stakeholders from six living labs, representing Czechia, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK, were involved in the appraisal, along with a multi-stakeholder group from Belgium. Respondents used data and digital tools for various purposes in farming systems and were interested in their potential to improve agroforestry including animal, tree, and crop performance, management guidance, system design, and tree species selection. Our survey revealed that the perceived usefulness of digital tools for agroforestry was substantially higher than stakeholders' awareness of existing tools, indicating a need for better promotion and development of user-friendly, accessible solutions. Additionally, significant obstacles to agroforestry adoption, such as large up-front investments, administrative burdens, and fear of reduced CAP support, were identified, emphasizing the necessity for targeted support and policy improvements. Moving forward, efforts should focus on developing targeted solutions to promote agroforestry according to stakeholder perception, and user-friendly digital tools tailored to the needs and preferences expressed by stakeholders, while also increasing knowledge sharing and capacity building among practitioners and researchers.

Despite the extensive amount of evidence in the literature regarding the benefits of agroforestry systems including carbon sequestration, soil erosion reduction, climate change resilience, biodiversity conservation and other ecosystem services, the adoption of agroforestry practices presents several barriers for farmers and other stakeholders, thus requiring comprehensive examination from the scientific community. We performed a systematic literature review following the methodology described in the PRISMA framework, to provide a novel comprehensive and systematic overview of what is present in the literature regarding the obstacles stakeholders perceive with regards to agroforestry adoption, gathered through participatory research methods, which are methodologies that engage stakeholders in the research process. In this work, we highlighted and categorized 31 obstacles that stakeholders around the globe perceive according to the examined literature (n = 90) with regards to agroforestry adoption, pertaining to i) technical-agronomic, ii) socio-economic and iii) policy-legislative aspects. We produced a consultable database of the examined literature presenting the extracted and categorized data including 1) Region of interest; 2) Investigated agroforestry system; 3) Methodologies utilized in the papers; 4) Number, gender ratio and type of stakeholders; 5) Main relevant obstacles found in the paper. We highlighted the five most frequently encountered issues i) the availability or quality of knowledge or experience on technical and agronomic matters, or knowledge diffusion necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems ii) the perceived socio-economic issue related to the market, marketing of agroforestry products, supply chain or jobs in agroforestry; iii) issues related to the amount of labor or time necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems; iv) issues related to the upfront economic investment necessary to establish an agroforestry system and availability of capital; and v) issues related to the availability of technical support necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems.