Résumé
Agroforestry systems across the planet are elements of larger anthropogenic landscapes. These include a range of environments, from forests to areas mainly used for the intensive production of cereals, tubers or forage for domestic animals. We examine ‘traditional’ agroforestry systems to decipher how indigenous and local knowledge creates continuities and connectedness among the different elements of these larger anthropogenic landscapes. The societies that have devised these systems and shaped these landscapes conceive of nature and culture as intimately interconnected. These conceptions are linked to multiple practices, including choice of crops and how each crop is propagated, management of wild species as part of food systems, soil management, and management of vegetation mosaics at the landscapelevel. These societies use the wide range of environments in multiple activities for subsistence and for trade. Given these interconnections, focusing only on the part of the landscape seen as ‘agroforestry’ prevents us from understanding the structure, functioning and dynamics of the overall system. Using case studies from Indonesia, Madagascar, Morocco, Sicily, France, Vanuatu and Amazonian forests, we will show how agroforestry is embedded within social-ecological systems. We emphasize the importance of understanding how societies use indigenous and local knowledge to manage landscape-level interconnections and how practices are related to their conceptualization of nature. We will also show how these practices create and maintain diversity at different levels, from intraspecific genetic diversity of their crops to landscape-level biodiversity, and thereby contribute to the resilience of agroforestryand the well-being of societies that increasingly depend on it.