Climate change governance in agroforestry systems: a systematic review

Abstract: Agroforestry has the potential to fundamentally transform socio-ecological systems to address the root causes of climate vulnerability. Although there is increasing interest in agroforestry as a transformative adaptation strategy, its implementation is often discouraged by the need to involve multiple stakeholders, sectors, and governance levels with potentially different interests. We draw on a systematic review of sixty-four peer-reviewed papers on climate change governance in agroforestry systems to (1) outline the current state of the literature, (2) characterise how governance is conceptualised, (3) investigate governance challenges, and (4) provide insights into effective governance. The review finds that most relevant papers have been published in the past three years, and most of these papers are found in interdisciplinary journals. The main governance challenges include coordinating polycentricity, overcoming power imbalances, and sharing, translating, and integrating different types of knowledge. However, few empirical studies of agroforestry governance have been completed. A richer conceptual framework of governance is required to improve our ability to navigate the role of sustainable land management practices such as agroforestry in successful climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Keywords: Governance, agroforestry, climate change, socio-ecological systems, systematic review.

Article posted to the Journal of the British Academy, volume 9, supplementary issue 10 (Climate Policy, Regulation and Governance)