ShadeTreeAdvice methodology: Guiding tree‐species selection using local knowledge

International audience 1. Selection of shade tree species for agroforestry systems must take the complex-ity of these systems into account. Tree species selection should maximize the provision of ecosystem services while minimizing disservices. Selected species must be adapted to local agroecological conditions and cater to farmers' needs, while considering their preferences and constraints.2. The ShadeTreeAdvice methodology was developed to support said selection process using farmers' local ecological knowledge. It provides the steps to rap-idly identify tree species and evaluate their impacts on a range of locally impor-tant ecosystem services. Results are uploaded to a decision support tool to tailor tree species recommendations to individual farmers' needs (www.shadetreea dvice.org). During the 5 year timeframe between 2016 and 2020, eight studies following this methodology were conducted in various coffee and cocoa grow-ing regions across Africa, Asia and Central America.3. This article looks back at these studies to synthesize their findings and evalu-ate the methodology. We identified similarities in the use of tree species across different study areas, notably regarding leguminous and fruit tree species. We showed that the method was efficient to evaluate tree species' impacts on soil and climate regulation, crop production, and economic benefits. It was less ef-ficient for evaluating impacts related to incidence of pests and diseases, often associated with knowledge gaps. The method also successfully allowed inves-tigating the links between LEK and socio-economic groups or environmental factors.4. Furthermore, we suggest a series of improvements in the methodology for fu-ture studies. These improvements include (i) broadening the scope of studies beyond tree species provision of ecosystem services to include tree species im-pact on farming practices; (ii) allowing the comparison of tree performances in agroforestry systems versus in full sun; (iii) providing a clear pathway for validation of the results; (iv) using tree species' functional traits to generalize the results.