This presentation by Terry Sunderland focuses on how food security and nutrition contribute to enhancing the management and use of forests, agroforestry and tree genetic resources across the landscape from forests to farms.

1. 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

2. FTA Conceptual framework
and components
THINKING beyond the canopy

3. Themes
System
Level
Outcomes
(SLOs)
Intermediate
Development
Outcomes
(IDOs)
Theme 1
Smallholder
produc.on
systems
and
markets
Theme 2
Management
and
conserva.on
of
forests
and
trees
Theme 3
Landscape
management,
biodiversity
conserva.on,
ecosystem
services
and
livelihoods
Theme 4
Theme 5
Climate
change
adapta.on
and
mi.ga.on
Impacts
of
trade
and
investment
Cross-cutting themes:
Gender
Communications
Sentinel Landscapes
Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment
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4. Objectives
• Enhancing the management and use of
forests, agroforestry and tree genetic
resources across the landscape from forests
to farms
500 Million ha
open/fragmented forests
1.3 Billion ha
of closed forests
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5. 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
THINKING beyond the canopy

6. 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
THINKING beyond the canopy

7. 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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8. 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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9. Some implications, if true
• 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)
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10. 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
THINKING beyond the canopy

11. Testing the hypothesis
• 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
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12. Study using DHS data
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
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13. Sample: about 93,000 children between ages 13
and 59 months in over 9,500 communities
(21 countries )
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14. Regressions
• 3 Dependent Variables:
DDS; Fruit & Vegetable consn; Animal
Source Food consn
• Independent Variables:
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% Tree Cover and % Tree Cover2
Mother’s education
Father’s education
Wealth Index
Rural Dummy
Child age & age2 & age3
Distance to Rd
Distance to closest city of 10,000
Aridity Index
Elevation
Sex of child
Currently breastfeeding
Month of interview
Country dummy
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15. Results
• 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
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16. Where are we now?
• 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
THINKING beyond the canopy

17. Publications & dissemination 2013
DISCUSSION PAPER
Food security and nutrition
The role of forests
Terry Sunderland
Bronwen Powell
Amy Ickowitz
Samson Foli
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Robert Nasi
Christine Padoch
• 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
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18. 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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19. Partnerships
• ICRAF, Bioversity = FTA
• Engagement with CRP4
on flagship “Nutritionsensitive 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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20. Influencing the
agenda?
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
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21. Read more…
Available on line: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.001
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22. 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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23. Thank you!
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
is one of the 15 centres supported by the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
www.cifor.cgiar.org
THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy