**11. Conclusions**

Agroforestry systems are a viable option to reduce land degradation and generate income for rural families. However, due to the cost structure and the return period, technical and financial assistance (payment for environmental services) should be considered for the adoption and empowerment of these systems to be successful in the long term. CAn farmers are familiar with a set of traditional AFS, including shaded coffee, shaded cocoa, silvopastoral systems (SSP), and row trees.

The different modalities of the AFS allow the diversification of family farming, the sale of surplus production, and the efficient use of the natural resources of the farm (water, land, biodiversity, energy); factors that are linked to the degree of development of the peasant economy and that would allow more comprehensive productive, food, and nutritional schemes. Due to the similarities in their structure, energy flows, and nutrient cycles with natural forest ecosystems, AFS is considered to be an alternative for ecologically sustainable use for climatic zones where natural vegetation is a forest.

Agroforestry systems, whether traditional or innovative, allow the development of strategies for the maintenance of productivity based on the regulation of nutrient recirculation through the choice of species, planting densities, and the management of canopy shade on crops through pruning. All this makes it possible to maximize income and minimize the loss of nutrients from the soil.

Although the advantages of the tree component (trees, shrubs, palms, and bamboos) are always highlighted, there can also be negative effects on crops and soil when planting density and shade are excessive and when the choice of species is not the most appropriate.

There are ancestral agroforestry modalities (*Quesungual* or *Kuxum-Rum*) that are very appropriate for tropical areas with a dry season and the recovery of degraded areas. Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) own or manage a considerable area of existing forests in the CA region; consequently, they are related to agroforestry practices comprising subsistence crops such as maize, beans, bananas, plantain, and cocoa, managed through low-impact concepts and combined in agroforestry systems; where multiple crops are mixed with timber trees, and with permanent crops such as cocoa, they offer a different vision of what agroforestry systems and the ancestral management of the natural forest should be since they develop a sustainable production in which the soil is never left uncovered. After all, Agroforestry is a form of productive restoration of degraded areas because it improves soil fertility, increases resilience to climate change, and provides alternative sources of income to local people.

Agroforestry is part of the concept of the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) mechanism, which is based on a combination of public and market incentives for the implementation of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures. An example is the NAMA for the coffee sector of CR, which constitutes a broad platform for coordination and participation of the sector together with governmental, nongovernmental, and international cooperation entities, covering an area of more than 90,000 hectares and 50,000 producers, for the improvement of competitiveness (cost savings and diversification of the coffee agroforestry system), and seeks at the same time the differentiation of the sector maintaining its access to markets and contributing to a low emission economy.

In a brief summary of the above, Guatemala has experiences and achievements in community forest management, with more than 20% of forests managed communally or municipally (380,000 hectares managed sustainably by community concessions in Petén); in Panama, 54% of forests and carbon are in indigenous territories and indigenous peoples organized under the National Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of Panama (COONAPIP); Nicaragua has interesting approaches in the Autonomous Regions (21 titled territories with more than 3.6 million hectares, which are more than 62% of the forests in North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions (RAAN and RAAS); in Honduras, more than 400,000 ha are in the hands of communities since the Forestry Law of 2007, there is titling of seven territories and 760,000 ha in the Mosquitía; while in CR, indigenous peoples, who constitute 2% of the population with 12% of the forests in the country, have Indigenous Development Associations (ADI) and from these rights the Payment of Environmental Services (PES) was established in indigenous territories with institutions consolidated by the National Forest Financing Fund (FONAFIFO).

Finally, Agroforestry is a possible alternative to receiving payment for the environmental services (PES) they produce. In the case of CR and Guatemala, there exist formal PES programs that incentive agroforestry; promote the incorporation of trees in agroecosystems; as an alternative for the recovery of forest cover, income generation, and also as a means for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Honduras and Panama provide environmental services in their legislation, and Dominican Republic is in the process of formally implementing PES. In the case of mixed crops involving timber trees, it will undertake to increase and/or reorder the number of trees and reduce the impact of the crop on soils and waters and that its activity coincides with the capacity of land use; in addition, they could constitute an opportunity to strengthen the processes of conservation, sustainable use and poverty reduction in the CA region.

## **Acknowledgements**

I dedicate this review to the memory of Dr. Gerardo Budowski (1925–2014) with whom I was introduced to the concepts of agroforestry; also, to my colleagues in my initial experience (1981–1986) at The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), where I took the first steps into this multi-disciplinary field that combines agriculture with forestry and livestock activities.

## **Conflict of interest**

The author declares that the literature research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest, and without external funding.

## **Comments**

The apparent limitation of the study would be that the author cited mainly old literature, but the author felt that the pioneering work of the researchers who laid the foundations of the AF both in the New and Old World could not fail to be recognized. However, it is recognized the mutual importance of both the pioneering and current researchers of these sustainable cultivation technologies.

*Agroforestry: An Approach for Sustainability and Climate Mitigation DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105406*
