Around one billion people rely to some degree on wild harvested products for food and income, the direct contribution of forests to diets is considerable and often crucial, if often hidden from urban and official eyes. This direct food contribution adds not only considerable calories but also much needed protein and micronutrients to the diets of local populations as well as additional income for buying food. But the contributions forests make to food production may be far more important than data on direct provisioning suggest. The role of forests and their contribution to agricultural productivity is frequently mentioned, but better evidence is clearly needed. The value of ecosystem services to agriculture (including regulation of water flow and quality, pollination services, the tempering of climate change, and other crucial services) has largely been overlooked by policy-makers and businesses. Also little explored is the extent and impact of managing “natural” forests for food and other important products including the fuelwood used for food preparation. The spectrum of forest management for food, ranges from subtle alterations of the abundance of fruit-bearing trees, animals, and other species to the management of forests by creating forest gaps for swidden agriculture. These practices are rarely recognized, little understood, often criminalized.

1. Forests and Food
Christine Padoch

2. Forests and Livelihoods
 From CIFOR’s Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) data on
forests and rural incomes :
 Forest income contributes >20% of total household income for
people living in or near forests
 With other “environmental” income, >25%; more than
 from planted crops
THINKING beyond the canopy

3. Food from forests: bushmeat
 5 million to 6 million tons
of bushmeat eaten
annually in the Congo
Basin
 This is roughly equal to
the total amount of beef
produced each year in
Brazil
 For many communities up
to 80% of their intake of
protein and fats.

4. But the direct contributions of forests are eclipsed
by their services to agriculture
 Water filtration and regulation
 Pollination services
 Temperature regulation
 Aquatic resources
 Temperature regulation
 Genetic resources

5. Why are forest contributions (food , etc.)
not valued?
 Existing tools for assessing income and food sources – do not
capture their importance
 Much of the activity falls between sectors and is thus “illegible”
 Many forest people and their livelihoods are “invisible”

6. Smallholder management of forests
has been “invisible”
• For millennia forests and other non-
agricultural ecosystems have been
managed to better satisfy a variety of
human and societal needs, including the
need for food
• However, these traditional forms of
management have remained mostly
invisible to researchers
• We need to focus on identifying,
understanding and evaluating their realities,
potentials, and the trade-offs they demand.

7. purma vieja
chacra nueva
platano
chacra
purma vieja
chacra en produccion chacra en produccion
frutal
platano platano
yucal y platanal
frutal
purma huerta

8. Managed Forests in Amazonia

10. Acai palm (Euterpe oleracea) raquiles
broom
dye
fruit
juice
domestic animal fodder
smoke rubber (coagulate)
fruit
fertilizer
roof cover
leaves “poguega” shrimp bait
wrap
“peconha” climbing belt
general covers
leaves/
crownshaft heart of palm
leaflets hat
paper pulp
construction beams
foundation for general
trunk trunk construction
floor boards
fences
walls
bridges
“cacuri” fixed fishing trap
Construction of raised plant
bed
roots Medicine for stomach
Figure courtesy of E. Brondizio problems

11. Expansion of municipalities producing acai fruit, 1985-2004
according to IBGE
2004
~1985*
Brondizio, E. S. 2008. The Amazonian Caboclo and the Acai Palm: Forest farmers in the Global Market. New York:
New York Botanical Garden Press.

12. Terrain preparation
Crops: Annuals
Unmanaged
Selective clearing Unmanaged forest Clearing & leveling
Papaya
 bi-annuals
Acai

Banana Lemon grass
Pineapple

Inter-cropping Thinning & Sowing
Intensive Managed
Acai plantation
Transplanting in rows

Acai over bananas Pruning acai clumps
Perennials
Acai monoculture
Acai agroforestry Acai agroforestry Figure courtesy of E. Brondizio

13. Average no sacks of açai (~48 kg fruit/sack) produced per
month by 36 sample households in Mazagao (2000 – 2011)
60
50
40
Forests
30 Fallows
House Garden
20
10
0
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20

14. Management for Multiple Products

15. Smallholder management of forests
has been “invisible”
• For millennia forests have been managed to
satisfy a variety of human and societal needs,
including the need for food
• However, these traditional forms of
management have remained mostly invisible
to researchers
• Is working with smallholder forest
management (rather than teaching farmers
conventional forestry practices a promising
way for assuring food, incomes, and
sustainable landscapes