Forests, trees and agroforestry: What role in food security and nutrition?

THINKING beyond the canopy

Forests, trees and agroforestry: What role in food security and

nutrition?

Terry Sunderland CGIAR Nutrition and food safety workshop

Lusaka, Zambia 20th January 2014


FTA Conceptual framework and components


Themes

Smallholder produc.on systems and markets

Management and

conserva.on of forests and

trees

Landscape management, biodiversity conserva.on, ecosystem services and livelihoods

Climate change

adapta.on and

mi.ga.on

Impacts of trade and investment

Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs)

System Level Outcomes (SLOs)

Theme 1 Theme 2 Theme 3 Theme 4 Theme 5

Cross-cutting themes: Gender

Communications Sentinel Landscapes

Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment


Objectives

•  Enhancing the management and use of forests, agroforestry and tree genetic resources across the landscape from forests to farms

1.3 Billion ha of closed forests

500 Million ha open/fragmented forests


Forests, food security and nutrition •  One billion+ people rely on forest

products for nutrition and income in some way

•  Forested landscapes provide important safety-net during times of food insecurity

•  Wild harvested meat provides 30-50% of protein intake for many rural communities

•  75% of world’s population rely on biodiversity for primary health care

•  40% of global food production comes from diverse small-holder agricultural systems in multi-functional landscapes

•  Long tradition of managing forests for food

•  Forests sustaining agriculture: ecosystem services provision


CIFOR’s food security research •  Rooted in historical

research on NTFPs / landscapes

•  Funded projects •  Publications •  Conference attendance and

scientific dissemination •  Blogs and media coverage •  Close collaboration with

range of partners •  Emerging team of in-house

specialists


New food security projects •  The new agrarian change? Land sparing and land sharing

in (Sentinel) landscapes (DfID/USAID) •  Nutrition and trees in Sub-Saharan Africa: a comparative

regional analysis (DfID/USAID) •  Agro-industrial expansion and impacts of the food security

of forest dependent livelihoods (DfID) •  Nutritional and ecological benefits of forest and tree cover

on vegetable collection, production and consumption in semi-arid areas: Ethiopia and Burkina Faso (ADA)

•  Systematic review: Forests sustaining agriculture - the contribution of forest-based ecosystem services to agricultural production (DfID)

•  Integrated Research in Development to improve Livelihoods in Northern Province, Zambia (Irish Aid, with World Fish)

•  Ca. US$2.5 million project portfolio


Hypothesis: Trees and Forests are important for dietary quality (dietary diversity)

§ Collection of nutritious NTFPs § Farming mosaics may

promote more diverse diets § Agroforestry and fruit

production § Ecosystem services of forests

for agriculture §  Availability of fuel wood § May provide ‘back up’ foods

for lean season


•  Forests may be relevant for food security/nutrition discussion not only because of potential conflicts with another SLO, but because might be of direct importance to nutrition as well

•  Choices that are framed as food security/nutrition or conservation are more complex (especially relevant for govt policy)

•  We may need to fundamentally rethink the way we do our research ….title of this Science Forum

Some implications, if true


Is there evidence?

§  Several recent papers discussing some of these plausible links (Colfer et al., 2005; Vinceti et al., 2008; Arnold et al., 2011), but li=le data to support § Recent paper by Johnson et al. (2013) finds that net forest

loss associated with less dietary diversity in Malawi § Also, it is plausible that there might be a negative association


•  Study using DHS data from 21 countries integrated with GIS data on % tree cover to estimate the relationship between tree cover and child nutrition indicators (Ickowitz, Powell, Salim, Sunderland, under review)

•  CIFOR project collecting dietary intake information from mothers and children in study sites in 5 African countries

Testing the hypothesis


We Integrate: •  nutrition data from Demographic Health

Surveys with

•  % tree cover data from GLCF (2003 and 2010 MODIS data at 250 m resolution)

(as well as other sources for other controls) to investigate whether there is a statistically

significant relationship between indicators of dietary quality and tree cover

Study using DHS data


Sample: about 93,000 children between ages 13

and 59 months in over 9,500 communities

(21 countries )


•  3 Dependent Variables: DDS; Fruit & Vegetable consn; Animal Source Food consn

•  Independent Variables: Ø  % Tree Cover and % Tree Cover2 Ø  Mother’s education Ø  Father’s education Ø  Wealth Index Ø  Rural Dummy Ø  Child age & age2 & age3 Ø  Distance to Rd Ø  Distance to closest city of 10,000 Ø  Aridity Index Ø  Elevation Ø  Sex of child Ø  Currently breastfeeding Ø  Month of interview Ø  Country dummy

Regressions


•  There is a statistically significant positive relationship between % tree cover and Dietary Diversity (as proxied by DDS)

•  Fruit and Vegetable Consumption first increases and then decreases with tree cover (peak tree cover is about 45%)

•  There is no statistically significant relationship between tree cover and Animal Source Foods

Results


•  The results of the DHS study give an indication that there are interesting relationships, but are far from offering an explanation •  DHS data are coarse •  The GIS data don’t tell

us the kinds of trees •  Data can’t explain WHY

children in areas with more trees have more diverse diets

•  Country level regressions give heterogenous results

•  So….

Where are we now?


Publications & dissemination 2013

•  Discussion Paper: summary of CIFOR’s strategy and approach

•  Three expert papers for FAO in advance of Food Security Conference (May)

•  Paper on relationship between tree cover and nutrition in Africa (Global Environmental Change)

•  Special issue Unasylva •  Eight CIFOR blogs, Twitter,

Reuters, Voice of America radio, Mongabay & other media coverage

D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R

Food security and nutritionThe role of forests

Terry Sunderland

Bronwen Powell

Amy Ickowitz

Samson Foli

Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez

Robert Nasi

Christine Padoch


Meetings and conferences

•  FAO, Forests and Food Security (May)

•  Leverhulme Conference on Integrated Nutrition and Health (June)

•  UNEP: African Food Security and Adaptation (August)

•  International Congress for Nutrition (August)

•  CGIAR Science Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (September)

•  First global food security conference, Holland (Sept/Oct)


Partnerships •  ICRAF, Bioversity = FTA •  Engagement with CRP4

on flagship “Nutrition-sensitive landscapes”

•  Emerging partners (e.g. HEAL)

•  USAID’s food security bureau

•  World Fish (CRP on AAS)

•  IUFRO Global Forest Expert Panel on food security and nutrition


Forests and trees outside forests are essential for global food security

and nutrition Summary of the International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition

FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy, 13–15 May 2013

Influencing the agenda?


Read more…

Available on line: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.001


New approaches for integrating agriculture and NRM?

•  “Eco-agriculture” (Scherr and McNeely 2006) •  “Agroecology is complimentary to conventional

agriculture and needs scaling up” (United Nations 2011)

•  “New agriculture needed…” (UNDP 2011) •  “Agro-ecological approach” (World Bank 2011) •  “Integrated management of biodiversity for food and

agriculture” (FAO 2011)

THINKING beyond the canopy THINKING beyond the canopy

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is one of the 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

Thank you! www.cifor.cgiar.org

Education

Forests, trees and agroforestry: What role in food security and nutrition?