In Sub-Saharan Africa, 83% of the population cannot afford a healthy diet. Inadequate intakes of fruits and vegetables is a particular problem. However, trees hold promise as an avenue to improve local diets as trees can be a source of nutrient-rich fruits and leafy vegetables. Many African countries are currently implementing larger tree-planting projects aimed at improving climate change mitigation. A key example is AFR100 aiming to restore 100 million hectares by 2030. Whether such projects also benefit people’s nutrition will depend on the tree species being planted. There is a political bias towards initiatives focused on fast growing tree species such as eucalyptus and pine that can provide firewood, but not food, and therefore has negligible impact on people’s nutrition. This bias is unfortunate as we have robust evidence from the ERC Starting Grant FORESTDIET that women with multipurpose trees in and around their farmland have better dietary quality as compared to those without trees. These findings encouraged us to examine how we can harness the momentum around tree planting to co-address both biodiversity and nutrition outcomes.
In this POC, we conducted a user needs assessment with 21 civil society organizations engaged in 39 tree planting projects across Malawi. The user needs assessment revealed a number of key challenges: 1) lack of technical information on the tree-planting pipeline from seed collection and storage to nursery production and planting, 2) poorly developed value chains for tree-based products, and 3) limited political support for tree planting and maintenance. We have responded to these challenges by creating a printed, illustrated toolkit – which was the format requested by the 21 organizations.
The toolkit is a compilation of three knowledge products. Product 1 offers a detailed written description of how to identify 24 indigenous tree species that provide nutritious foods in Malawi, coupled with botanical illustrations. Product 2 features a seasonal calendar, illustrating the flowering, fruiting, and seed collection periods for these 24 indigenous species. Product 3 provides a step-by-step guide with technical information on the procurement of seeds, nursery establishment, as well as the preparation and maintenance of planting sites.
In summary, the results from our user need assessment with organizations already engaged in tree-planting initiatives have greatly advanced knowledge on which key challenges they face. It is evident that we need 1) capacity building around tree species propagation, including preservation of traditional knowledge of indigenous species, 2) alignment of political and economic incentives to support marketing of tree-based foods and products, and 3) shifting project/funding aims from tree planting to tree maintenance. Our developed toolkit is a first step to better targeting tree-planting initiatives to achieve triple-win solutions for nutrition, conservation, and climate goals. However, while our user need assessment was representative for Malawi (the 39 tree-planting projects represented all of Malawi’s 28 districts), more research is needed in other countries and contexts to scale our toolkit beyond Malawi.
