Understanding the ecological, social and economic performance of farming systems: The case of pollination services

GARIBALDI LA; GEMMILL-HERREN B; D?ANNOLFO R; GRAEUB BE; CUNNINGHAM SA; BREEZE T

Congreso; First IUFRO Landscape Ecology Latin-American and Second IALE Latin- American Congress; 2016

Scientists globally are calling for alternative approaches to conventional intensification that reduce the ecological footprint of agriculture. These approaches aim to enhance ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, such as pollination services, to achieve resilient and productive farming landscapes. The successful adoption and implementation of alternative farming systems requires that they also perform well in social and economic terms. We find that such performance is surprisingly poorly documented and we review a participatory framework based on four steps for gathering the evidence to close this knowledge gap. Because of the impacts of intensive agriculture on biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, such evidence is urgently needed to direct science-policy initiatives on pollination services (and more generally ecosystem services) and climate change, and guide implementation of the new UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.