Presented by Terry Sunderland at the USAID and CIFOR mini-summit on food security and biodiversity in Washington D.C. on 26 October 2016.

1. USAID/CIFOR Mini Summit
Washington DC
26th October 2016
SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES AND FOOD SYSTEMS:
EVIDENCE FOR INTEGRATION

2. CONTEXT
• “Forests & landscapes” not a new concept for CIFOR – been part of the
strategic framework since establishment in 1993
• However, “sustainable landscapes” only recently integrated into
development lexicon – GLF(s) have helped to do this
• Forests, food and nutrition approach heavily rooted in NTFP paradigm,
sustainable forest management, agroforestry etc.
From the CIFOR Strategy 2015-2025:
• Integration of diverse communities of practice in the sustainable
landscapes debate: to be achieved by reconciling the principles of
multifunctionality with the practice of managing sustainable landscapes
for food security and nutrition and other benefits.
• Increased policy recognition of the to need to better integrate the
forestry and agricultural sectors: to be achieved by using the
landscape approach as the convening factor (c.f. simultaneous yet
separate declarations on forestry and agriculture).

3. BEYOND PROJECT: TOWARDS A “BODY OF WORK”
Bushmeat Research Initiative
Operationalising the landscape approach
Agrarian Change in Tropical Landscapes
Sustainable forestry for food security and nutrition
Nutrition and trees - Africa
KANOPPI
Forests and fish
Ecosystem services and oil palm
Integrated watershed management
Drivers of food choice - Indonesia

4. THE ORIGIN OF THE “LANDSCAPE APPROACH”
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010 - present
1980s: Integrated
Rural
Development
1998: Integrated Natural
Resource Management
(INRM)
1985 onwards: Integrated
Conservation & Development
projects (ICDPs)
Contributing Sciences:
Ecosystem Management
Landscape Ecology
Island biogeography
Conservation rooted
frameworks e.g. “Ecosystem
Approach”
1992: “Landscape Approach”
first documented (Barrett
1992)
Last decade:
(Integrated)
Landscape Approach
frameworks

5. MAPPING THE RESEARCH ON LANDSCAPE APPROACHES
26,303 scoping results
in WoK using 35 revised
search terms
13,290 Publications
captured with refined
search terms
All TITLES screened
271,974 results from
initial 56 main search terms
trialed in WoK
1,171 Relevant studies
All ABSTRACTS screened
382 Relevant studies
All FULL TEXTS screened
82 Final studies of
relevance

6. EMBRACING THE LANDSCAPE APPROACH –
INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS FOR PEOPLE ACROSS SECTORS
“Despite some barriers to
implementation, a landscape approach
has considerable potential to meet social
and environmental objectives at local
scales while aiding national commitments
to addressing ongoing global challenges.”
Reed et al. 2016, Global Change Biology.

7. OPERATIONALISING THE LANDSCAPE APPROACH: HOW?
THEORY PRACTICE
E.g. Ten principles Real integration
Local stakeholders
Conservation: WCS, CI
Development: USAID LESTARI
Private sector: e.g. APP, APRIL
Government: e.g. Ministry of Env. & Forestry

8. FOREST FUNCTIONS AND LINKS TO FSN

9. “Forests are a major repository
of food and other resources that
play a crucial role in food
security. In addition, maintaining
diversity in agricultural
production systems leads to
increased resilience to shocks
particularly in the context of a
changing climate”. Editorial:
Arnold et al. 2011

10. “Our main findings can be summarized as follows: there is a statistically
significant positive relationship between tree cover and dietary diversity;
fruit and vegetable consumption increases with tree cover until a peak of
45% tree cover and then declines; and there is no relationship between
animal source food consumption and tree cover. Overall our findings
suggest that children in Africa who live in areas with more tree cover
have more diverse and nutritious diets”. Ickowitz et al., 2014

11. “The relationship between biodiversity and nutrition suggests that we need to
pay close attention to the potential of integrated approaches. We must
also seek to understand what the implications are for policy and what the
messages to policy makers should be. Primarily, it suggests there is a
need for more systems and multi-sectorial approaches to address the
contemporary concurrent challenges of sustainable food systems that
include forestry, conservation, agriculture, food security and nutrition”.
Powell et al., 2015

12. “Areas of swidden/agroforestry, natural forest, timber and agricultural
tree crop plantations were all associated with more frequent
consumption of food groups rich in micronutrients. The
swidden/agroforestry land class was the landscape associated with
more frequent consumption of the largest number of micronutrient rich
food groups. Swidden cultivation in is often viewed as a backward practice
that is an impediment to food security in Indonesia and destructive of the
environment. If further research corroborates that swidden farming actually
results in better nutrition than the practices that replace it, Indonesian policy
makers may need to reconsider their views on this land use”. Ickowitz et al.,
2016

13. "Our findings suggest that deforestation and land use change may have
unforeseen consequences on the quality of local people’s diets. A better
understanding of the contribution of forest foods to local diets is needed to
understand the true impact that the loss of forests may have for nutrition in
the face of agricultural expansion. If indeed forests substantially
contribute to dietary quality in some areas as the results here imply,
forest loss may result in unforeseen, adverse consequences on
nutrition for local people." Rowland et al. 2016

14. FORESTS AND FOOD SECURITY: THE MISSING PIECE
Seasonality
Off-farm income
Agriculture

15. FORESTS SUSTAINING AGRICULTURE
How does landscape configuration maximise the provision of these
goods and services for both forestry and food production???
Water regulation
Climate regulation
Pollination
Pest control
Foli et al. 2014; Reed et al. forthcoming

16. GENDER ISSUES
“There is strong and clear
evidence of the
importance of including
women in forest
management groups for
better resource
governance and
conservation outcomes”.
Leisher et al. 2016
“Women and children
collect more plant
based forest foods
while men are
responsible for animal
protein sources”.
Sunderland et al. 2014

17. GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT

18. 2017: LAUNCH OF HLPE REPORT
• Much of the recent work of our theme has
influenced the drafting of the HLPE Report:
“Sustainable forestry for food security and
nutrition” for the Committee on World Food
Security (CFS)
• At e-consultation stage, many individuals,
civil society and governments provided
formal review and feedback: e.g. Russian
Federation, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, India,
US & the Netherlands
• Report will be released in February 2017 and
then officially launched at CFS Annual
Congress in October
• Probably greatest opportunity to get forests
and food security and nutrition onto global
food security agenda and policy arena

19. ALIGNMENT WITH USAID STRATEGIC PRIORITIES – BIODIVERSITY
USAID Biodiversity Policy, 2014
“The poor management of both forests and fisheries means that these precious
resources will not meet human demand over the long term – compromising global
food security and straining the resilience of these systems and society”. Rajiv
Shah, Administrator
• “Integrate biodiversity as an essential component of human development”
• “ Recognizing and responding to the different behaviors, roles, and
responsibilities of men and women is critical… need a gender-sensitive
approach to biodiversity conservation”
• “Embark on evidence-based action and learning efforts with a focus on the
nexus of biodiversity and other development sectors”
• “Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems provide goods and services critical to
human well-being (clean water, food, reduced natural disaster risk) and can
help sustain development outcomes”
• “Apply systems thinking and integrated approaches”
• “Identification and pursuit of opportunities for integration of biodiversity with
targeted sectors of agriculture, food security, climate change, health, economic
growth, and trade”

20. ALIGNMENT WITH USAID STRATEGIC PRIORITIES – FOOD SECURITY
Global Food Security Strategy 2017-2021
• “Inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led
economic growth”
• “Strengthened resilience among people and
[food] systems”
• “A well nourished population (putting nutrition
before production), especially women and
children”
• “Ensuring a sustainable food and agricultural
system”
• “..aims to break silos, integrating programming
across sectors and agencies”
• “Evidence-based approach on what works…. for
maximum results”
• IR4: Increased sustainable productivity
especially through climate smart
approaches

22. cifor.org
blog.cifor.org
ForestsTreesAgroforestry.org
THANK YOU!!