Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FORESTDIET (Reinterpreting how forests support people's dietary quality in low-income countries)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-08-01 do 2023-01-31
This interdisciplinary project will identify how forest loss and fragmentation affect people’s dietary quality in low- and middle-income countries. The findings are expected to lay the groundwork for a shift in how we think about pathways to food security – moving from conceptualizing food security as driven by agriculture alone to seeing it as dependent on socio-ecological interactions at the forest-agriculture nexus.
Such a shift is key because there is a strong focus on agriculture, and the role of forests have been under-emphasized in food and nutrition security policies. As the debate around how best to feed the world in a sustainable manner grows, pursuing an in-depth understanding of how forests support diets is thus paramount to overcome nutrient deficiencies, especially because many low-and middle-income countries – in addition to the challenge of high nutrient deficiency rates – are facing high deforestation rates due to foreign interests in commercial agriculture.
The overall objective of the research is to:
1) estimate how forest loss and fragmentation affect people’s dietary quality in low-income countries
2) establish a novel comprehensive framework on forest-diet linkages, thereby pushing the field towards a more theory-oriented and evidence-based agenda.
Such a shift is key because there is a strong focus on agriculture, and the role of forests have been under-emphasized in food and nutrition security policies. As the debate around how best to feed the world in a sustainable manner grows, pursuing an in-depth understanding of how forests support diets is thus paramount to overcome nutrient deficiencies, especially because many low-and middle-income countries – in addition to the challenge of high nutrient deficiency rates – are facing high deforestation rates due to foreign interests in commercial agriculture.
The overall objective of the research is to:
1) estimate how forest loss and fragmentation affect people’s dietary quality in low-income countries
2) establish a novel comprehensive framework on forest-diet linkages, thereby pushing the field towards a more theory-oriented and evidence-based agenda.
During the first 30 months of the project, we have completed part of Objective 1 as we have estimated how forest loss and forest fragmentation affect people’s dietary quality in Tanzania (note that Tanzania has moved up to being classified as a middle-income country). Our study presents a significant advancement of the current state of the art as it is the first to test the causal impact of forest changes on diets. The results are startling as we found that household vitamin A adequacy decreased over the study period as a result of deforestation. While increased agricultural production will undoubtedly be important for meeting the food needs of a growing population, our findings really should push people to think beyond the field when trying to help rural communities improve food security in places where wild foods are important.
The results were published as a scientific article in PNAS. We are currently working on applying our developed method to 6 countries in West Africa and to Malawi.
As for Objective 2, the two PhD students have completed a comprehensive literature study on the linkages between A) forest and diets and B) trees-on-farm and diets. Both of these reviews are feeding into establishing a novel framework on forest-diet linkages. Review A was published in One Earth, whereas Review B was published in People and Nature.
The results were published as a scientific article in PNAS. We are currently working on applying our developed method to 6 countries in West Africa and to Malawi.
As for Objective 2, the two PhD students have completed a comprehensive literature study on the linkages between A) forest and diets and B) trees-on-farm and diets. Both of these reviews are feeding into establishing a novel framework on forest-diet linkages. Review A was published in One Earth, whereas Review B was published in People and Nature.
Our paper published in PNAS 2022 lead by postdoc Charlotte Hall advances the research field on forest-diet linkages significantly beyond the state of the art as it is the very first study to test the causal impact of forest changes on diets. The study is also considered a breakthrough as our findings show that household vitamin A adequacy decreased over the study period as a result of deforestation. We also find that the magnitude of impact that we normally observe from agriculture on diet (which is the point of departure for many food and nutrition security policies’ strong focus on agriculture) is actually less than what we see in this study. In other words, the results of the current study point toward the need for an alternative approach to improving food security than focusing on only agriculture and production of calories.
In the next 30 months, we plan to apply our novel method to test the causal impact of forest change in other countries to see if the observed relationships hold across countries and contexts. In summary, our findings are expected to transform our understanding of landscape-diet linkages so as to facilitate the development of a comprehensive framework of how forests influence people’s dietary quality. Such framework - which remains absent from the emerging nexus between land system science and nutritional science - is paramount to improved design of food security and nutrition policies that aim to achieve better dietary quality for rural populations in low- and middle-income countries. Given the speed and magnitude of forest loss and fragmentation across the world, such advancements in knowledge, including an identification of how negative impacts on dietary quality can be lessened, is critical to ensure that food and nutrition security strategies move beyond agricultural production and yields to embrace the key nutritional problem of nutrient deficiencies and the potential role that forests can play to alleviate them.
In the next 30 months, we plan to apply our novel method to test the causal impact of forest change in other countries to see if the observed relationships hold across countries and contexts. In summary, our findings are expected to transform our understanding of landscape-diet linkages so as to facilitate the development of a comprehensive framework of how forests influence people’s dietary quality. Such framework - which remains absent from the emerging nexus between land system science and nutritional science - is paramount to improved design of food security and nutrition policies that aim to achieve better dietary quality for rural populations in low- and middle-income countries. Given the speed and magnitude of forest loss and fragmentation across the world, such advancements in knowledge, including an identification of how negative impacts on dietary quality can be lessened, is critical to ensure that food and nutrition security strategies move beyond agricultural production and yields to embrace the key nutritional problem of nutrient deficiencies and the potential role that forests can play to alleviate them.