Agroecology Ecosystems And Sustainability In The Tropics

Tropical ecosystems are some of the most biologically and ecologically diverse in the world. Traditional, local agroecosystems in the tropics reflect this diversity, and provide excellent examples of how nature can be used as the model for designing and managing sustainable agroecosystems. This book brings together such examples. Using an agroecological approach, the collection of chapters demonstrates how agroecology must simultaneously be a science, a practice, and a movement for social change towards a paradigm of sustainability that engages all parts of the food system, from the field to the table. Chapter contributors were selected from multiple countries and backgrounds, providing a valuable diversity of approaches and knowledge systems, and the interaction of these systems gives this book the important transdisciplinarity that has become a key component of agroecology. Working across disciplines and knowledge systems is necessary in order to link the multiple components of food systems that promote effective change. As food systems return to the diversity, complexity, and resilience they once had, it is collections of experiences as presented in this book that provide examples of the path we must be on. Steve Gliessman, Professor Emeritus of Agroecology, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.