It is essential to today's sustainability challenges that science embraces new interdisciplinary approaches that go beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. This interdisciplinary study explores alternative agricultural practice by smallholder farmers in Pernambuco who practice agroforestry as a model system for understanding the coevolution of social and natural systems towards sustainability (Norgaard, 1994). Agriculture's relationship to the global needs of the food and climate crisis focus on integrating food security issues into the agricultural research agenda, addressing access, production and nutrition aspects of sustainable food security and integrating natural resources and forestry in sustainable food security research (Earl, et al 2001). Agroforestry systems can be an application of integrating sustainable food production into forestry and biodiversity conservation. Mcneely and Schroth, 2006, note: “Agroforestry practices have often been shown to increase levels of wild biodiversity on agricultural land, and are also hypothesized to play a supporting role in conserving biodiversity in remnant natural habitats. which are interspersed with agricultural land in mosaics of tropical land use. Little research, however, has focused specifically on this latter question, which is particularly relevant for species that depend on natural habitat and require relatively large areas." Jose, 2009 confirmed the strategies provided by agroforestry for carbon sequestration, soil enrichment, biodiversity conservation, and improved air and water quality not only for landowners or farmers, but for society in general, also contributing to the reduction of poverty. Greater biodiversity in agricultural practices ensures… middle of the paper… stability, and a number of other combined strengthenings in environmental law are needed. And they point out that there are cases where agroforestry is practiced around forest areas, and farmers do not respect the boundaries and expand harvesting inside the forest and sometimes deforest. In Pernambuco, agroforestry systems are surrounded by monoculture crops, which act as an island of trees, the only “forest” area in the landscape. Indeed, it would not be a surprise if the current AFS in Pernambuco served as genetic resources for the propagation of corridors or connections between other “forest” islands. Dewenter et al 2007 analyzed multilayer agroforestry systems with forest trees and planted trees and found that the total species richness of all species groups studied, except trees, was similar or even higher in the agroforestry than in neighboring forest sites to primary forest.