This paper examines the literature on how biodiversity contributes to improved and diversified diets in developing countries. We assess the current state of evidence on how wild and cultivated biodiversity in all forms is related to healthy diets and nutrition, and examine how economic factors, knowledge and social norms interact with availability of biodiversity to influence both production and consumption choices. The paper identifies areas where evidence is lacking and ways to build synergies between nutrition-sensitive approaches and efforts to ensure sustainability of food systems and the natural environment.

SignificanceCurrent research linking biodiversity and human diets has used metrics without justification from a nutritional point of view. Diet species richness, or a count of the number of different species consumed per day, assesses both nutritional adequacy and food biodiversity of diets for women and children in rural areas. The positive association of food species richness with dietary quality was observed in both the wet and the dry season. Food biodiversity contributes to diet quality in vulnerable populations in areas with high biodiversity. Reporting the number of species consumed during dietary assessment provides a unique opportunity to cut across two critical dimensions of sustainable development—human and environmental health—and complements existing indicators for healthy and sustainable diets.

The potential of biodiversity to increase and sustain nutrition security is increasingly recognized by the international research community. To date however, dietary assessment studies that have assessed how biodiversity actually contributes to human diets are virtually absent. This study measured the contribution of wild edible plants (WEP) to the dietary quality in the high biodiverse context of DR Congo. The habitual dietary intake was estimated from 2 multiple-pass 24 h dietary recalls for 363 urban and 129 rural women. All WEP were collected during previous ethnobotanical investigations and identified and deposited in the National Botanical Garden of Belgium (BR). Results showed that in a high biodiverse region with precarious food security, WEP are insufficiently consumed to increase nutrition security or dietary adequacy. The highest contribution came from Dacryodes edulis in the village sample contributing 4.8% of total energy intake. Considering the nutrient composition of the many WEP available in the region and known by the indigenous populations, the potential to increase nutrition security is vast. Additional research regarding the dietary contribution of agricultural biodiversity and the nutrient composition of WEP would allow to integrate them into appropriate dietary guidelines for the region and pave the way to domesticate the most interesting WEP.

Abstract:With the growing demands from a population expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, it is unclear how our current global food system will meet future food needs. Ensuring that all people have access to adequate and nutritious food produced in an environmentally and socio-culturally sustainable manner is one of the greatest challenges of our time. -Sustainable diets‖ have been proposed as a multidimensional framework to address the need for nutritious and adequate food in the context of the many challenges facing the world today: reducing poverty and hunger, improving environmental health, enhancing human well-being and health, and strengthening local food networks, sustainable livelihoods and cultural heritage. This paper examines the contribution of forests and trees to sustainable diets, covering among others, nutritional, cultural, environmental and provisioning aspects. The literature reviewed highlight major opportunities to strengthen the contribution of forest and tree foods to sustainable diets. However, several constraints need to be removed. They relate to: cultural aspects, sustainable use of non-wood forest products, organization of forest food provisioning, limited knowledge of forest food composition, challenges in adapting management of forests and trees to account for forest foods, and in integrating forest biodiversity into complex landscapes managed for multiple benefits. Finally, the paper identifies research OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2013, 5 4798 gaps and makes recommendations to enhance the contribution of forest foods to sustainable diets through increased awareness and better integration of information and knowledge on nutritious forest foods into national nutrition strategies and programs.

Wild Edible Plant (WEP) knowledge is very important for the survival of many African communities and may constitute a genetic resource pool for the development of novel food products. Only very limited and general information on WEPs of the Tshopo District, DRCongo, is available in international literature. Ethnobotanical research was carried out in 3 ethnic groups, Turumbu, Mbole and Bali, in 3 different territories of the Tshopo District. In 3 villages per ethnic group, WEPs were inventoried and their properties discussed in focus groups. Via 'walks-in-the-woods' with key informants all WEPs were collected to constitute a reference herbarium. Preferences in taste, commercial, nutritional and cultural value, were discussed during participatory ranking exercises. A total of 166 WEPs (165 species and 2 varieties) in 71 families, together with their uses, preparation methods, availability and commercialization possibilities were documented. Comparisons between the 3 ethnic groups showed that the use and knowledge of WEPs is clearly culturally defined with high diversity between ethnic groups. Therefore, we should make a difference between species with regional importance and ethnospecific species when it comes to priority setting for further study and participatory domestication. Based upon the preference ranking exercises, Anonidium mannii, Landolphia owariensis and Megaphrynium macrostachyum are some of the species with regional importance. Participatory domestication aims at ameliorating nutrition security and diversifying and increasing local farmers' income whilst protecting the tropical rainforest from overexploitation.