Changing the Agriculture Paradigm in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: The Importance of Agroforestry

Agricultural expansion has been the main driver of land-use change in the Atlantic Forest. Nowadays, more than 60% of the biome is dedicated to mostly unsustainable agricultural land-uses; however, most people live in urban areas and overall production is low. Here, we discuss the impacts of agriculture in shaping the landscape and its potential to restore socioecological interactions. The focus is on agroforestry, which is broadly understood as the integration of trees in productive systems and landscapes. In the first part of the chapter, we review the concept of agroforestry, benefits, its relation to urgent global issues, its role in Forest Landscape Restoration and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the second part of the chapter, we present examples in the Atlantic Forest and discuss the opportunities and challenges for upscaling the adoption of agroforestry and overcome the apparent dichotomy between production and conservation.