Agroforestry is a traditional land use system that may contribute to the solution of environmental problems in agriculture. Agroforestry is the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crops and/or animal systems to benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions. Recent research indicates that a wider adoption of agroforestry principles and practices is a key means by which the global agri-food sector might achieve more sustainable methods of food and fiber production by producing both economic benefits for farmers and environmental benefits for society. Agroforestry provides numerous provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services and environmental benefits while promoting eco-intensification based on a more efficient use of the resources. Nevertheless, there is only little published recent information on the contribution of agroforestry to the environment in general and on climate change, carbon sequestration and forest fires in particular. In this special issue a number of articles are included that provide a kaleidoscope of the environmental benefits that agroforestry provides to the environment.

农林业是一种传统的土地利用系统，可能有助于解决农业中的环境问题。农林业是有意将木本植被（树木或灌木）与作物和/或动物系统相结合以从由此产生的生态和经济相互作用中受益的做法。最近的研究表明，更广泛地采用农林业原则和做法是全球农业食品部门通过为农民带来经济利益和为社会带来环境利益来实现更可持续的粮食和纤维生产方法的关键手段。农林业提供了大量的供给、调节、文化和支持性生态系统服务和环境效益，同时在更有效地利用资源的基础上促进生态集约化。尽管如此，关于农林业对环境的总体贡献，特别是关于气候变化、碳固存和森林火灾的贡献，最近发表的信息很少。在本期特刊中，包括了许多文章，提供了农林业为环境提供的环境效益的万花筒。