THREATS

1. Agroforestry systems and landscapes are threatened by two opposing trends, abandonment and intensification of their use, which result in reduced provision of ecosystem services, their degradation and eventual disappearance. At the same time, they are threatened by land use change, either through urbanization/ expansion of settlements & new buildings dispersed across the countryside without any special planning, or through the installation of infrastructure not related to agricultural activities (mainly renewable energy power plants, industrial plants, quarries, transport projects such as expressways, among others).

2. The abandonment of agroforestry systems and landscapes leads to the cessation of agricultural cultivation and/or periodic grazing and the cessation of tree management, especially of cultivated trees and undergrowth, which leads to their aging and eventually to the alteration of their active structure. This is followed by the invasion of native or even alien species due to natural vegetation succession, at first herbaceous and then woody, and often flammable shrubs, transforming them into dense young forest, which according to new climate models is highly vulnerable to forest fires, especially in dry thermal environments.

3. Contrary to the above, the intensification of land use in agroforestry systems and landscapes involves the removal of trees and hedgerows, the cessation of periodic grazing, and their conversion to agricultural monocultures, often accompanied by extensive use of agrochemicals, which ultimately lead to a dramatic loss of biodiversity (especially pollinators), degradation of ecosystem services, as well as soil erosion and eventually desertification

4. Particularly in silvopastoral systems, abandonment implies under-grazing or complete cessation of grazing, resulting in the densification of vegetation, homogenization of the landscape, and increased fire risk. Intensification, on the other hand, is often accompanied by overgrazing, which leads to the exposure of the soil to erosion, the inability of trees to regenerate naturally, and ultimately to desertification

5. These two contrasting trends (intensification - abandonment) in the current management of agroforestry ecosystems have a similar result in the way they impact on the habitats of endangered agricultural species, especially birds. Either through intensification or abandonment, the result is homogenization of the landscape and reduction in the mosaic of microhabitats, which is the main and most valuable feature of agroforestry landscapes, both for birds and for their particular biodiversity generally. The removal of small but distinctive landscape features (such as isolated trees and dry stone walls) through major projects, such as land reclamation, or the afforestation of forest openings due to abandonment of grazing, leads to the loss of edge zones between different habitats (e.g. forest - grassland) and to the reduction of ecotone