Environmental benefits and sustainable land-use options in the Jambi transect, Sumatra

Loss of environmental services provided by forests is a non-linear process in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Intermediate-intensity land-use types in the form of complex agroforests have maintained global environmental benefits under a sustainable and profitable land use regime. Conver- sion to tree crop monocultures, however, poses a challenge to the environmental stakeholders and an opportunity from to stakeholders in the private economy. We quantified environ- mental indicators, as well as profitability and sustainability of a range of existing and possible production systems. Criteria and indicators were used at plot to landscape scales, taking into account local, national and global perspectives. Agro- nomic sustainability and profitability were assessed at plot level as they are of primarily local concern, while environ- mental services of forests, such as plant species and functional type richness, carbon stocks, greenhouse gas emissions, and trans-boundary haze, which are of national and global con- cern, were assessed at landscape level. Quantitative trade-offs and complementarities were analysed between global envi- ronmental benefits and local profitability. The current trend towards simplification of the complex agro-ecosystems and inherent loss of environmental services of forests is driven by profitability. The sequence in which environmental services of forests are lost is: standing carbon stocks, biodiversity, and low or negative greenhouse gas emissions.