REVIEW ARTICLE Agroforestry: a sustainable environmental practice for carbon sequestration under the climate change scenarios—a review Farhat Abbas 1 & Hafiz Mohkum Hammad 2 & Shah Fahad 3 & Artemi Cerdà 4 & Muhammad Rizwan 1 & Wajid Farhad 5 & Sana Ehsan 1 & Hafiz Faiq Bakhat 2 Received: 16 November 2016 /Accepted: 22 February 2017 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract Agroforestry is a sustainable land use system with a promising potential to sequester atmospheric carbon into soil. This system of land use distinguishes itself from the other sys- tems, such as sole crop cultivation and afforestation on croplands only through its potential to sequester higher amounts of carbon (in the above- and belowground tree biomass) than the aforemen- tioned two systems. According to Kyoto protocol, agroforestry is recognized as an afforestation activity that, in addition to seques- tering carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to soil, conserves biodiversity, pro- tects cropland, works as a windbreak, and provides food and feed to human and livestock, pollen for honey bees, wood for fuel, and timber for shelters construction. Agroforestry is more attrac- tive as a land use practice for the farming community worldwide instead of cropland and forestland management systems. This practice is a win–win situation for the farming community and for the environmental sustainability. This review presents agro- forestry potential to counter the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO 2 by sequestering it in above- and belowground biomass. The role of agroforestry in climate change mitigation worldwide might be recognized to its full potential by overcom- ing various financial, technical, and institutional barriers. Carbon sequestration in soil by various agricultural systems can be sim- ulated by various models but literature lacks reports on validated models to quantify the agroforestry potential for carbon sequestration. Keywords Climate variability . Environmental sustainability . Forest . Land use management . Model . Soil Background An agroforestry system Growing of trees in combination with other field agricultural activities, such as cultivation of crops and rearing of animals, can typically be termed as an agroforestry system. Agroforestry practices on agricultural land make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not system- atically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or na- tional carbon accounting. Agroforestry has traditionally been important elements of temperate regions around the world. This practice results in a number of benefits including ensured food security, enhanced biodiversity, enrichment of an ecosys- tem with increased resources, and attainment of various envi- ronmental targets, e.g., maintaining atmospheric CO 2 to cer- tain limits (Ajayi et al. 2011). In addition, the trees just planted on 3–5% of agricultural lands increase farm productivity, re- duce vulnerability to climate change, and decrease greenhouse gases emission (Possu et al. 2016); hence, the practice has been regarded as climate-smart agriculture (FAO 2010). Cumulatively, these benefits provide mitigation strategies to Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues * Farhat Abbas farhat@gcuf.edu.pk * Shah Fahad fahad80@yahoo.com; shah.fahad@mail.hzau.edu.cn 1 Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan 2 Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Vehari 61100, Pakistan 3 College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China 4 Departament de Geografia, Universitat de València, Blasco Ibàñez, 28, 46010 Valencia, Spain 5 Department of Agronomy, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal 90150, Pakistan Environ Sci Pollut Res DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-8687-0