This edition will highlight the issue of agricultural ecosystem services. The area has gained increasing attention from policymakers, international organizations, academics and NGOs since the 1990s as a promising concept to address the links among and integration of the environmental, social and economic implications of agricultural development. Ecosystem services contribute to sustaining agricultural productivity and nutrition value by supporting the pollination of crops and soil formation; regulating water, disease and climate; and providing recreational, cultural and spiritual benefits. In the agriculture landscape, famers are both stewards and beneficiaries of ecosystem services and have the potential to manage their farmland to enhance ecosystem services and ensure maximum benefits for themselves and others.

The first article in this edition discusses the potential of smallholder tree-farming systems to provision ecosystem services and food security. The research findings indicate that tree-based systems are an important reference point in national and international policies, both for public and private sectors, in achieving the SDGs.

A short article about the social, cultural and ecological values of ecosystem services provided through farming systems in the Pacific Islands illustrates the local wisdom on ecosystem services provision, which is an ancient concept in Palau and throughout the Pacific. This edition also shares an impact story on the case of financial incentives provided through a bee farms programme to coffee farmers in the Kodagu district of Karnataka, India that helps them to conserve the landscape they have inherited.