In recent decades, pasture expansion onto the seasonally dry hillsides and humid lowlands has increased and raised a great deal of concern about deforestation, land degradation and the ecological vulnerability of the urban and rural poor to natural disasters (e.g., the effects of hurricane “Mitch” in Central America). Degradation of pasture land is generally the result of exceeding the carrying capacity for cattle, the use of landscapes or soils that are inappropriate for cattle, or inadequate use or management of pasture species or soil. Unfavourable economic conditions and government policies have also contributed to poorly managed cattle production systems and pastureland degradation. Over the past years, national and international institutions have been developing silvopastoral systems and other interventions for the rehabilitation of degraded pasture lands considering the bio-physical, socio-economic and political conditions that prevail in each area. Recent research initiatives include: studies of traditional knowledge and systems; evaluation of fodder trees to improve the productivity of ruminants; testing forage and multipurpose/timber trees on degraded pasture lands; entomological, mammalian and avian biodiversity; nutrient cycling, soil fertility maintenance and sustainability issues, and socio-economic evaluation of silvopastoral systems. The increased attention being given to the use of silvopastoral systems to increase livestock productivity and to restore degraded pasture lands justifies organizing an international symposium to review recent (and earlier) results and methodologies, that are available from a wide variety of sources, as a basis for new programmes and collaboration. Moreover, the complexity of these systems and their study indicates that modelling will be a fundamental tool to guide new research, integrate existing and new information (e.g., site-specific results) and to provide synthesized results to support development on a wide scale (e.g., expert systems). The objectives of this symposium/congress are:
To document and synthesize available biophysical and socio-economic results (and methodologies), from the investigation, development and promotion of traditional and new silvopastoral systems designed to increase productivity of traditional livestock systems and to recover degraded pasture lands.
To promote individual/institutional cooperation in existing/new research programmes on silvopastoral systems, including collaboration between members of different IUFRO groups and national and international organisations.
To prepare recommendations for future research priorities targeted to restore degraded pasture lands.
The symposium has been organised in five technical sessions:
Degraded pasture lands and rehabilitation of pasture ecosystems
Fragmented pasture landscapes and ecosystem services
Interactions, modelling and system analysis in silvopastoral systems
Fodder and production functions
Socio-economic evaluation of silvopastoral systems
The extended abstracts of the presentations at the symposium: “Silvopastoral Systems and Second Congress on Agroforestry and Livestock Production in Latin America” have been assembled in this document. All participants were requested to submit extended abstracts in English. These abstracts have not undergone any scientific review; they have been slightly edited to fit a standard format. This compendium must therefore be considered simply as a working documents to support the oral and poster presentations. The presentations will be reviewed by the scientific committee of the symposium, and a selection of full papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal Agroforestry Systems and in “Agroforesteria en las Americas”.
