FORESTS AND FOOD SECURITY.

Global forest area is around 4 billion hectares, and still

represents about 30 percent of the total terrestrial surface

of our planet.1 It is well known that forests provide many

key environmental services, such as water management,

conservation of biodiversity and serving as a carbon sink

to mitigate global warming. In addition, forests play an

important role in the food security of one billion of the

poorest people on the planet by providing food or cash

income through a wide range of products such as wild

yams, bush meat, edible insects, fruits, leaves,

mushrooms, nuts, honey and medicinal products. Forests

also provide many non-food raw materials such as

bamboo, rattan, palm fibres and resins that can be used

for building shelter or sold at local markets, as well as

fodder for livestock.2

The people who depend on forests for their food

security are often very vulnerable to higher food prices

because they purchase most of their food on markets.

Higher food prices for these “hunters and gatherers”

mean that they have to collect more out of the forests

either for sale at local markets (in order to obtain

sufficient cash to buy the more expensive food), or to

exchange via barter. Higher food prices can thus have a

direct impact on forest quality, conservation and the

survival of key forest species (mainly fauna and medicinal

plants).

For these people, farming is not an option, as they do

not own or have access to farmland. In view of concerns

about climate change and biodiversity losses, clearing

more forests is not an attractive alternative either. Thus,

sustainable forest management is critical for their food

security. Forests will increasingly need to be managed not

only for their timber production potential, but also to

produce a larger and sustainable supply of edible non-wood

forest products, as well as to enhance the many

services forests and trees provide to the agriculture sector.

Reference.

1 FAO. 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Rome.

2 See http://www.fao.org/forestry/nwfp/en/.