Summary
This paper presents the APES (Agroecological Practices for Ecosystem Services) framework, a participatory, farm-level tool developed through the Horizon 2020 RADIANT project to assess ecosystem services emerging from agroecological practices. The framework was refined through stakeholder workshops in Greece and Scotland, then demonstrated on Northern Italian dairy farms, revealing how multiple interacting strategies in diversified systems generate measurable ecosystem service benefits. By rendering ecosystem services visible and actionable at farm level, APES supports farmers and advisors in agroecological transitions.
Regional applicability
The framework was developed and refined partly through UK-based (Scottish) stakeholder engagement, making it applicable to United Kingdom farming contexts. However, the illustrative case study was conducted in Northern Italy; transferability to UK dairy farming would benefit from additional site-specific testing, particularly regarding regulating service indicators under different bioclimatic and management conditions.
Key measures
22 ecosystem services across provisioning (assessed via farmer perceptions and crop diversity) and regulating/supporting categories (assessed via degree of practice implementation)
Outcomes reported
The study developed and demonstrated the APES framework, which assesses 22 ecosystem services (8 provisioning, 14 regulating/supporting) based on agroecological practice implementation. A case study on Northern Italian dairy farms illustrated how ecosystem services emerge from synergistic combinations of multiple practices within diversified systems.
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