This document summarizes a presentation on the role of forests, trees, and agroforestry in food security and nutrition. It discusses how over 1 billion people rely on forest products for nutrition and income, and outlines the hypothesis that trees and forests are important for dietary quality and diversity through providing nutritious wild foods, supporting diverse agricultural landscapes, and providing ecosystem services. It then describes a study that found a relationship between higher tree cover and greater child dietary diversity in 21 African countries, based on nutrition and remote sensing data, but notes the limitations of this analysis. Finally, it lists some of CIFOR's current research projects relating to this topic.

1. THINKING beyond the canopy
Forests, trees and agroforestry:
What role in food security and
nutrition?
Terry Sunderland
IIED, London
8th April 2014

2. THINKING beyond the canopy
Forests Trees and Agroforestry:
Conceptual framework

3. 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

4. THINKING beyond the canopy
Forests, food security and nutrition
• One billion+ people rely on forest products
for nutrition and income in some way
(Agrawal et al 2013)
• One fifth of rural income derived from the
environment (Wunder et al 2014)
• Wild harvested meat provides 30-50% of
protein intake for many rural communities
(Nasi et al 2011)
• 80% of world’s population rely on biodiversity
for primary health care (IUCN 2013)
• 40% of global food production comes from
diverse small-holder agricultural systems in
multi-functional landscapes (FAO 2010)
• Long tradition of managing forests for food
(IUFRO 2013)
• Forests sustaining agriculture: ecosystem
services provision (CIFOR forthcoming)

5. THINKING beyond the canopy
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

6. THINKING beyond the canopy
Hypothesis: Trees and Forests are important
for dietary quality & 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
§ Provision of ‘back up’ foods
for lean season = safety nets

7. THINKING beyond the canopy
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 few data to support
§ Recent paper by Johnson et al. (2013) finds that net forest
loss is associated with reduced dietary diversity in Malawi
§ The bigger picture?

8. THINKING beyond the canopy
• 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
• CIFOR project collecting
dietary intake information
from mothers and children in
study sites in five African
countries
Testing the hypothesis

9. THINKING beyond the canopy
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 USAID’s DHS data

10. THINKING beyond the canopy
Sample: about 93,000 children between ages 13
and 59 months in over 9,500 communities
(21 countries )

11. THINKING beyond the canopy
• 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

12. THINKING beyond the canopy
• There is a statistically significant positive relationship between
% tree cover and Dietary Diversity
• Fruit and Vegetable Consumption first increases and then
decreases with tree cover (peak tree cover is ca. 45%)
• There is no statistically significant relationship between tree
cover and Animal Source Foods
Results

13. THINKING beyond the canopy
• 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/forests
• Data can’t explain WHY
children in areas with more
trees have more diverse
diets
• Country level regressions
give heterogenous results
• So….
So what?

14. THINKING beyond the canopy
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
• CIFOR blogs, social media,
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 nutrition
The role of forests
Terry Sunderland
Bronwen Powell
Amy Ickowitz
Samson Foli
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Robert Nasi
Christine Padoch

15. THINKING beyond the canopy
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?

16. THINKING beyond the canopy
Forests, food security & nutrition 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 p.a.

17. THINKING beyond the canopy
New approaches for integrating agriculture
and NRM at the landscape scale?
• “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)

18. THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy
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