Can ecosystem services help the new agricultural transition?
Résumé
In this chapter, we highlight why our current conventional agricultural systems are in crisis. They are unsustainable as they rely on fossil energy and limited resources such as phosphorus. Furthermore, they are not resilient against climate change and contribute to losses of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Agroecology has been proposed as a promising concept to foster the resilience and sustainability of agroecosystems and rural territories.
New conceptual and operational tools are needed to direct attention to the interface of society, well-being, economy, and the environment. Here we discuss the potential of the ecosystem services concept to serve as an operational tool to foster an agroecological transition. Because it may bring together a broad range of values, and hence local actors, we argue that integrated valuation of ecosystem services has the potential to act as a tool to foster a transition to sustainable agriculture. Although there are local cases where ecosystem services assessments have led to increased ecosystem services delivery and social learning, the ability of such assessments to support this transition remains largely underexplored and should be further tested.