Structural heterogeneity shapes economic resilience and ecosystem-service trade-offs in Mediterranean Montado agroecosystems: a farm-level bioeconomic analysis
Abstract
CONTEXT: Mediterranean agro-silvopastoral systems provide both market outputs and ecosystem services, yet their economic capacity to remain viable under climate, market, and policy stress may depend strongly on farm structure. The Portuguese Montado exemplifies this challenge: beneath a shared landscape label lie structurally distinct farm archetypes whose economic responses to external shocks may differ markedly. OBJECTIVE: This study examines whether structural heterogeneity, among three purposefully selected Montado farm archetypes, shapes their economic resilience profiles and ecosystem-service trade-offs under common external stressors. METHODS: The forestry-oriented case was represented by a deterministic accounting model, whereas the mixed agro-silvopastoral and livestock-specialized cases used calibrated nonlinear optimization models. Economic resilience was evaluated using a Resilience Index, Conditional Value-at-Risk, operating-profit sensitivity, and scenario-specific viability outcomes. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Economic resilience differed systematically across archetypes (RI: 0.907, 0.839, and 0.752, respectively). Policy exposure explained most of this divergence: the livestock-specialized farm became unprofitable under full Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) withdrawal (operating-profit proxy: -€19,242), indicating that public support is structurally enabling for this archetype. Climate responses were also heterogeneous: diversification did not buffer stress in the mixed system, which faced correlated vulnerabilities across feed supply, water availability, and livestock energy requirements. Ecosystem-service provision involved non-linear, archetype-specific opportunity costs, and marginal results-based payments outperformed flat supplements by inducing land-use adjustments that more than offset compliance costs in the most policy-exposed system (+42.2% operating-profit gain). SIGNIFICANCE: Economic resilience in Mediterranean agroecosystems cannot be inferred from average-farm assessments. This study provides a replicable framework for archetype-sensitive agri-environmental policy design in Montado-type and other heterogeneous silvopastoral systems.
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BibTeX
@article{fatahi2026structural,
title = {{Structural heterogeneity shapes economic resilience and ecosystem-service trade-offs in Mediterranean Montado agroecosystems: a farm-level bioeconomic analysis}},
author = {Nour-Elhouda Fatahi and Seyed-Ali Hosseini-Yekani and Teresa Pinto-Correia and Maria de Belém Costa Freitas and João Tiago Marques and Hatem Belhouchette},
journal = {Agricultural Systems},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.agsy.2026.105014},
url = {https://hal-ciheam.iamm.fr/hal-05800838v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Structural heterogeneity shapes economic resilience and ecosystem-service trade-offs in Mediterranean Montado agroecosystems: a farm-level bioeconomic analysis
AU - Nour-Elhouda Fatahi
AU - Seyed-Ali Hosseini-Yekani
AU - Teresa Pinto-Correia
AU - Maria de Belém Costa Freitas
AU - João Tiago Marques
AU - Hatem Belhouchette
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
JO - Agricultural Systems
DO - 10.1016/j.agsy.2026.105014
UR - https://hal-ciheam.iamm.fr/hal-05800838v1
AB - CONTEXT: Mediterranean agro-silvopastoral systems provide both market outputs and ecosystem services, yet their economic capacity to remain viable under climate, market, and policy stress may depend strongly on farm structure. The Portuguese Montado exemplifies this challenge: beneath a shared landscape label lie structurally distinct farm archetypes whose economic responses to external shocks may differ markedly. OBJECTIVE: This study examines whether structural heterogeneity, among three purposefully selected Montado farm archetypes, shapes their economic resilience profiles and ecosystem-service trade-offs under common external stressors. METHODS: The forestry-oriented case was represented by a deterministic accounting model, whereas the mixed agro-silvopastoral and livestock-specialized cases used calibrated nonlinear optimization models. Economic resilience was evaluated using a Resilience Index, Conditional Value-at-Risk, operating-profit sensitivity, and scenario-specific viability outcomes. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Economic resilience differed systematically across archetypes (RI: 0.907, 0.839, and 0.752, respectively). Policy exposure explained most of this divergence: the livestock-specialized farm became unprofitable under full Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) withdrawal (operating-profit proxy: -€19,242), indicating that public support is structurally enabling for this archetype. Climate responses were also heterogeneous: diversification did not buffer stress in the mixed system, which faced correlated vulnerabilities across feed supply, water availability, and livestock energy requirements. Ecosystem-service provision involved non-linear, archetype-specific opportunity costs, and marginal results-based payments outperformed flat supplements by inducing land-use adjustments that more than offset compliance costs in the most policy-exposed system (+42.2% operating-profit gain). SIGNIFICANCE: Economic resilience in Mediterranean agroecosystems cannot be inferred from average-farm assessments. This study provides a replicable framework for archetype-sensitive agri-environmental policy design in Montado-type and other heterogeneous silvopastoral systems.
SN - 0308-521X
SN - 1873-2267
ER -