Читать книгу North American Agroforestry - Группа авторов - Страница 22

The development of agroforestry in the United States has social ramifications that will be realized at the individual, community, and national levels. As a sustainable land use strategy, agroforestry practices can further the land stewardship concept (Jordan, 1994; Montambault & Alavalapati, 2005; Roesch‐McNally, Arbuckle, & Tyndall, 2017; Udawatta et al., 2017; Weber, 1991) by providing assurance to landowners that they are meeting their ownership responsibilities to provide healthy ecosystems for future generations. If agroforestry proves to enhance the production capabilities of rural lands, such practices will help revitalize rural communities, which have become socially depressed because of recent economic problems (Jose et al., 2018). Farmers with limited land and immigrant populations interested in farming provide an important audience as well as a population that may be more interested in the more labor‐intensive practices common to agroforestry (Faulkner, Owooh, & Idassi, 2014). Understanding the role that agroforestry might play in modern land use systems will also help individuals appreciate that people from developing countries have experiences, insights, and knowledge potentially helpful for solving many problems currently plaguing modern societies (Coulibaly, Chiputwa, Nakelse, & Kundhlande, 2016; Jose & Dollinger, 2019). Such an appreciation for the value of human capital and indigenous (i.e., local) knowledge (Rossier & Lake, 2014) will help reduce ethnocentric and educational biases that form barriers between individuals who must work together to successfully address today’s environmental crises. Also important is the impression that the United States must make on the rest of the world with respect to its concern about the management of its own natural resources. Developing agroforestry practices and integrated agricultural and forestry land use systems will set international standards for ecologically sound management by example. Our concern about deforestation, desertification, and soil erosion in developing countries will gain more credibility once our own “ecological house” is in order.