To Örebro University

Agroforestry systems provide multiple benefits for human wellbeing and biodiversity; however, their diversity and spatial distribution has sharply declined across Europe. This study focuses on agroforestry farms in Sweden. The aim of the study was to explore farmers' motivations to start agroforestry, what benefits farmers attributed to their agroforestry farms and perceived challenges to practising agroforestry in Sweden. In total, 13 farms that practise various agroforestry forms were selected as case studies. A focus group, semi-structured interviews and field observations were used for data collection. We identified four types of agroforestry systems such as silvopasture, silvoarable, forest farming and forest gardens established on different land such as forested or agricultural land. All studied agroforestry farms were small but had complex spatial and temporal arrangements of crops, trees and animals, which were crucial to generating multiple benefits. Our results show that the multifunctionality of agroforestry systems resulted from farmers' desire to design such systems. Farmers' intentions to get foods and materials from their farms were always intentionally unified with multiple ecosystem services. We argue that agroforestry farmers are designers of multifunctional landscapes, as they deliberately organised their farming activities to get a bundle of ecosystem services belonging to all four categories-provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural. However, the complexity of agroforestry management, lack of technologies suitable for small-scale agroforestry farms, limited plant materials (including seedlings) and limited knowledge about how to do agroforestry challenged the scaling up of agroforestry practices.

Agroforestry is thought to be an approach that could support agriculture in the transition from a system with sustainability problems to one containing regenerative activities contributing to viable ecosystems and, therefore, sustainability solutions. A transdisciplinary and participatory action research (PAR) group that included farmers approached the development of temperate agroforestry systems in the modern agricultural setting of Sweden through practical experience on 12 farms for collective analysis. The objective was to research potential systems such as edible forest gardens, silvopasture and silvoarable systems to discuss their use and effects as well as scaling possibilities. Knowledge and experiences of challenges and solutions related to the development of agroforestry were identified at both niche and regime levels.

To meet the environmental challenges that are presently confronting society, the narrow focus on agricultural production needs to be altered to one that places equal value on the generation of crucial ecosystem services. Current research shows that perennial intercropping systems such as agroforestry may be a feasible alternative. Based on studies during the establishment of edible forest gardens in 12 participating farms in Sweden, this paper explores the potential of utilizing multi-strata designs for food production in temperate, highincome countries. Design and species composition of such gardens, types of food they provide, and how they would best fit into the present landscape are discussed. Factors for success and major problems related to the establishment are shared. Potential benefits were found to be closely related to a thorough analysis of the social and ecological contexts before establishment. Characteristics of the site and goals of the garden need to guide species and design choices. If forest garden approaches to food production should contribute to more than local selfsufficiency, the gardens need to increase in scale. Marginal lands and transitions areas between different land uses may be appropriate. Large knowledge gaps concerning potential production, social and economic benefits, and agronomic issues were identified.

Industrial meat production has several negative environmental effects. Governments’ agricultural policies aim for cost efficiency combined with high environmental and animal welfare, which puts farmers in a difficult situation trying to navigate between sometimes contradictory requirements. This paper studies how Swedish pig farmers resolve or cope with conflicting goals in pig farming. We have analysed the regulations governing EU and Swedish pig farming. We have also interviewed five Swedish pig farmers about their views of the different goals of pig farming and strategies for resolving conflicts between the goals of low environmental impact, high animal welfare and enough profitability to continue farming. The greatest divide was between the conventional farmers, who emphasized natural resource efficiency, and the organic farmers who stressed animal welfare, multifunctionality and ecosystem service delivery. We suggest four strategies to contribute to resolving some of the conflicting goals: improve communication about different types of pig farming; use public procurement as a driver towards more sustainable pork production; work towards improving the Common Agricultural Policy, perhaps by implementing payments for ecosystem services or multifunctionality; and finally, decrease the total production of pork to lower the emissions per land unit.