Farms for Future? Contribution of agroecological farms to the delivery of ecosystem services

In the western part of the Hainaut province in Belgium, a dynamic network of several farms intentionally incorporates biodiversity within their practices and across multiple scales. While it is suggested that such diversification of agricultural practices supports ecological processes in turn favoring biomass production and providing other ecosystem services (ES) to society, few studies have actually attested this fact. A recent review by Kremen and Miles (2012) comparing the provision of 12 ES in organic and conventional systems concludes that ‘integrated whole-system studies of the influence of different farming practices on multiples ES are critically needed’; a conclusion confirmed by the few existing farm-scale ES assessments.
This research’s goal is to fulfill this gap by providing comprehensive knowledge about the socio-ecological performance of such systems. To achieve this, we rely on the tool of integrated ES assessment, which includes both a biophysical and a social valuation. Such value-pluralism is of high relevance in agricultural contexts, where multiple values are required to capture the diversity of needs and wants that nature can contribute to fulfill for society and individuals.
With the aim to get better insights into societal values, a ‘field thesis committee’ was launched. This latter one includes local farmers and citizens who are consulted throughout the research. For instance, at the start of the project, a participative ES selection was organized to guide the research towards ES important in the eyes of local stakeholders.
The presentation first introduces the innovative multi-actor and multi-disciplinary approach developed in this project. Preliminary results are then presented and interpreted. We believe our approach can bring significant contribution to body of knowledge on the reconciliation of social and environmental expectancies.