Understanding Cultural Ecosystem Services of Multifunctional Agroforestry: A Study from the Foothills of The Nilgiris, Western Ghats, India

Numerous studies have underlined the benefits of cultural services from different landscapes and acknowledge the non-material benefits linking society and nature. However, cultural services from agroforestry have not been reported. Therefore, the present study was conducted in multifunctional agroforestry (MFA) comprised of 24 tree species and 8 intercrops established at the Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam, Tamil Nadu, India. Four workshops were conducted and a total of 105 respondents were asked to fill two sets of questionnaires regarding their perception of cultural ecosystem services in MFA. Among the selected components, education and scientific knowledge (0.90) ranked first, followed by relaxation (0.86) and walking (0.84). Results from principal component analysis revealed that three components, viz. relaxation, education and scientific knowledge, and inspiration accounted for 56.60% of the variance. Respondents’ willingness to pay was Rs 33/visit on an average and multiple regression analysis indicated that the MFA model was a good fit (R2 = 0.79) for agroforestry tourism. The results indicate that MFA provides scope for agro­forestry tourism, which will be an additional source of income for small and marginal-scale farmers.