Assessing ecosystem services in perennial intercropping systems – participatory action research in Swedish modern agroforestry

The focus of this paper is on how to assess ecosystem services in complex agroforestry systems using a case of edible forest gardens. Benefits of doing these assessments in a participatory learning and action research (PLAR) context are elaborated, as well as difficulties and questions that this has raised. The PLAR group comprised farmers on 13 smallholdings, researchers and a facilitator, which through collaboration and participatory methods have developed a general design of a forest garden, 60 m in size and established it on all 13 participating farms. Important values of the work are that ecosystem services are related to specific local contexts and that a methodology for multi-criteria assessments of the generation of ecosystem services on a farm scale are being developed. Farmers engaged in formulating research questions, development of field trial designs, sampling and analysis of results improves the relevance and quality of the research as well as advance the adoption of new knowledge.