Presented by Mulia Nurhasan , Ferry Hurulean , Amy Ickowitz
Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia
Research and Development Agency of West Papua Province, Manokwari, Indonesia
5. West Papua Province
A province in the largest
tropical island in the world
Source : CIFOR
Photo source : ailumulia
6. Photo Source : ailumulia
“I bought instant noodles sometimes five thousands, biscuits ten thousands,
puffed snacks five thousands. That popcorn was ten (thousands). Today I
spent fifty (thousand). Tomorrow again another 50 thousand”.
7. “We have everything. The production of tubers, production
of local foods is (enough) to fulfill the population needs”
“The availability of rice makes the indigenous people consume rice. They
are not gardening, hunting, and gathering anymore”
“The indigenous people are still depending on their forest.
Therefore, the thing that should be regulated now is about how the
land-use, how large-scale use of forest can be stopped”
Photos Source: FOLU
8. Photo Source : @ailumulia
Challenging road access and lockdown, high
malnutrition rate, and dependency to
imported food…
9. Photo Source : Ferry Hurulean
West Papua government are increasing campaign
for local food production and consumption, hoping
the pandemic will accelerate the process to achieve
more sustainable and resilient food systems.
10. Photo Source : @ailumulia
….an opportunity because local communities are eager
to improve their dietary pattern to be more sustainable
…a challenge because impact of
food systems disruption is
worsened by heavy reliance on
imported foods.
The COVID-19 pandemic is…
11. Photo Source : @ailumulia
CIFOR is
working with
local partner to
understand the
contribution of
forest foods to
rural and
urban
consumers
Thank you
12. Donors, Partners and Supporters
• EcoNusa Foundation
Opinions stated in the presentation belong to the presenter
and contributors, and do not necessarily represent the
opinion of the donors, partners and supporters.
The 5 minutes presentation is going to tell a story about the diet transition in forested areas of Indonesia is challenging the food systems resilience of forest people in pandemic.
Click 1/ enter slide 2: Indonesia consist of more than 17,000 islands with multiple overlapping and distinct food systems.
In the past, diets in one region could be very different from another, depending on the different local natural resources and food cultures.
Click 2: But decades of monoculture has resulted in Indonesian diversified local diets transitioned towards more homogenized, salty, sweetened and highly processed foods.
Click 3: As such, dietary transition has contributed to the increased rate of overweight, obesity, diabetes, hypertensions, and many more non-communicable diseases.
When people no longer consume local foods, and are heavily dependent on imported foods which their lands are not suitable to grow, their food systems are less resilient to supply shocks. The pandemic has made us aware of the fragility of our food system, with national dependence on a single staple, and heavily imported food items.
0.5 minute:
Dietary transition is happening all over the country. These dietary transition, is coincided with the rapid forest cover loss in Indonesia.
From 2008 to 2017 Indonesia have lost xx hectares of tree cover and xx hectares of forest cover loss.
We look closer at forested regencies of Indonesia and group them into most and least deforested areas.
Forest has an often-overlooked-contribution to food security. Forests provide ecosystem services, that can be used directly for food production, or wood fuel, or non-food products sold for cash. Forests also provide indirect benefits to food production through non-provisioning ecosystem services.
45 seconds:
Like everywhere in the country, dietary transition in most and least deforested areas of Indonesia follows a pattern towards more sugar-sweetened beverage, less raw beverage materials, less local protein source such as bush meat and fish, and more commercialized protein source such as broiler chicken and eggs, more rice and more wheat consumption, far less local traditional staple foods such such as sago, and tubers.
Interestingly though, for areas with least deforestation, with better access to local foods, the traditional food systems is more resilient. People in least deforested areas of Indonesia still consume higher amount of local staple foods, less sugar sweetened beverages, more fish, more wild meats, more green leafy vegetables and less chicken and eggs.
So in these areas, the modern and commercial ultraprocessed food products are increasingly consumed by communities who are still-but less and less dependent on their natural environment.
30 seconds:
Institutional key stakeholders showed strong willingness to revert back to their traditional diets, but worry about the process, since diet change has been systemic and widespread. They believe their land can provide enough local foods for the West Papuan, if people are willing to consume local diets. And the indigenous people who are still relying on forest should have their access to forest food protected.
1 minute:
As one of the province with most challenging road access, and very high malnutrition rate, lockdown has the local government worried, what will happen when rice cannot reach West Papua? Despite years of the national paddy field printing program in the province, there is very little production of rice in Papua where most of the land is not suitable for growing rice.
However the local government are also aware that this pandemic can be seen as a challenge, as well as an opportunity. It is a challenge because effect of food systems disruption is worsened by the fact that their diets is relying heavily on imported foods from outside Papua.
But it is also an opportunity, because previous studies have shown that local communities are eager to move back to their traditional diets. Local government are increasing their campaign for local food production and consumption and hope the pandemic will accelerate the process to return to their traditional diets.
30 seconds:
This year, CIFOR together with our partner Center for Research and Development of West Papua Province, aim to help indigenous farmers and food traders who live in forested areas and who benefit from the forest ecosystem services. With the help of local initiative, some of these farmers have used online platform to market their products since Covid-19 pandemic. We aim to learn from their experience how such platform has helped them survive the pandemic, and what can be improved to sustain their businesses during and beyond pandemic.
cifor is working with local ngo to understand potential role of local and forest foods..link to urban consumers blah
forests can be important important for diets and deforestation can have negative impacts on diets
We can conserve our forests and improve our diets at the same time.