There is a close relationship between agroecosystems, plant biodiversity and ecosystem services. In Central America, agroecosystems with arboreal components, such as coffee and cocoa provide a number of ecosystem services such as provisioning of products, carbon sequestration, improvement of soil fertility, food sources for wild animals, shelter, water, erosion reduction, etc.

There are also other production systems which are common in Central America such as grain systems, pastures and homegardens, that are capable to provide ecosystem services as well. Each of these agroecosystems have particular characteristics of design, structure and management, and therefore their performance in providing ecosystem services can be different.

Furthermore, each of them can present different types of trade-offs between several services, or between services and plant biodiversity. Such trade-offs should be balanced and reduced in order to offer two or more benefits for smallholder famers´ families simultaneously in a sustainable way