{"title":"Agroforestry systems for climate change mitigation and socioeconomic sustainability: global trends, ecosystem services and policy implications","authors":"Ashline Shaji, Rajnish Pandey, Avantika Pandey, Ayushman Malakar, Desavath Gouthami, K. Logeswaran, Arindam Pal, Rishita Pakhira, Suman Dutta, Agnish Kumar Das, Rudra Pratap Singh, Vinod Kumar Dubey","doi":"10.1007/s10457-026-01659-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Nature-based solutions (NbS) like agroforestry are critical for combating climate change, restoring ecosystems and supporting rural livelihoods. This article examines two and a half decades of scientific literature to evaluate the role of agroforestry in climate resilience and sustainable development. Following PRISMA guidelines, 736 peer-reviewed articles published between 2001 and 2025 were analyzed from the Scopus database and analyzed using R and VOSviewer software. The findings revealed a rapidly expanding research environment with an annual publication growth rate of 15.94%, reflecting surging global interest. Asia and Europe emerged as primary research contributors, with India leading global productivity with 82 publications. Thematic and keyword co-occurrence analyses highlighted an emerging shift from foundational land-use studies to biodiversity-focused agroecological approaches that integrate climate mitigation, ecosystem services and livelihood resilience. The results position agroforestry as a potent NbS that lowers greenhouse gas emissions, improves nutrient cycling and sequesters up to 30% more carbon in biomass and soil than conventional agriculture. Simultaneously, these systems also improve socioeconomic resilience by diversifying agricultural revenue, increasing food and nutritional security and building smallholder communities' adaptive potential. This study also explored several ecosystem services provided by agroforestry systems, directly contributing to achieving 11 key sustainable development goals. Despite these proven benefits, widespread acceptability remains hindered by gaps in global policy integration, monitoring systems and long-term carbon assessment methodologies. This study provides a systematic and integrative synthesis of global agroforestry research, highlighting its role as a scalable NbS for promoting climate action and sustainable development. Prioritizing interdisciplinary and participatory research is therefore recommended, which will ensure wider adoption of agroforestry practices.</p><h3>Graphical Abstract</h3><div><figure><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></figure></div></div>","PeriodicalId":7610,"journal":{"name":"Agroforestry Systems","volume":"100 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2026-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Agroforestry Systems","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10457-026-01659-5","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AGRONOMY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Nature-based solutions (NbS) like agroforestry are critical for combating climate change, restoring ecosystems and supporting rural livelihoods. This article examines two and a half decades of scientific literature to evaluate the role of agroforestry in climate resilience and sustainable development. Following PRISMA guidelines, 736 peer-reviewed articles published between 2001 and 2025 were analyzed from the Scopus database and analyzed using R and VOSviewer software. The findings revealed a rapidly expanding research environment with an annual publication growth rate of 15.94%, reflecting surging global interest. Asia and Europe emerged as primary research contributors, with India leading global productivity with 82 publications. Thematic and keyword co-occurrence analyses highlighted an emerging shift from foundational land-use studies to biodiversity-focused agroecological approaches that integrate climate mitigation, ecosystem services and livelihood resilience. The results position agroforestry as a potent NbS that lowers greenhouse gas emissions, improves nutrient cycling and sequesters up to 30% more carbon in biomass and soil than conventional agriculture. Simultaneously, these systems also improve socioeconomic resilience by diversifying agricultural revenue, increasing food and nutritional security and building smallholder communities' adaptive potential. This study also explored several ecosystem services provided by agroforestry systems, directly contributing to achieving 11 key sustainable development goals. Despite these proven benefits, widespread acceptability remains hindered by gaps in global policy integration, monitoring systems and long-term carbon assessment methodologies. This study provides a systematic and integrative synthesis of global agroforestry research, highlighting its role as a scalable NbS for promoting climate action and sustainable development. Prioritizing interdisciplinary and participatory research is therefore recommended, which will ensure wider adoption of agroforestry practices.
期刊介绍：
Agroforestry Systems is an international scientific journal that publishes results of novel, high impact original research, critical reviews and short communications on any aspect of agroforestry. The journal particularly encourages contributions that demonstrate the role of agroforestry in providing commodity as well non-commodity benefits such as ecosystem services. Papers dealing with both biophysical and socioeconomic aspects are welcome. These include results of investigations of a fundamental or applied nature dealing with integrated systems involving trees and crops and/or livestock. Manuscripts that are purely descriptive in nature or confirmatory in nature of well-established findings, and with limited international scope are discouraged. To be acceptable for publication, the information presented must be relevant to a context wider than the specific location where the study was undertaken, and provide new insight or make a significant contribution to the agroforestry knowledge base
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