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 20 th January 2014
Jun 14, 2015
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
THINKING beyond the canopy
FTA Conceptual framework and components
THINKING beyond the canopy
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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• 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
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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
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• 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
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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
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Sample: about 93,000 children between ages 13
and 59 months in over 9,500 communities
(21 countries )
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• 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
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• 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
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• 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?
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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
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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)
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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
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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?
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Read more…
Available on line: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.001
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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)
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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