Implementing Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) policy has contributed to conserving and protecting the forests to remain relevant for future generations. This study determines stakeholders’ viewpoint on the relationship between the implementation of SFM and food security in Sabah. The study was conducted by distributing online questionnaires through the SurveyMonkey platform using convenience sampling methods. Most of the respondents agreed that the forestry sector is still relevant to the development and generation of the economy and revenue to the state of Sabah. Apart from nature-based tourism, wood-based manufacturing, furniture industry, and agroforestry practices, other potential economic-generation segments are indigenous forest food productions, such as wild honey, fruits, vegetables, and game animals. The forestry sector could contribute to food security for Sabah by advancing the current practices and the use of local resources of forest foods. Other prospects are integrating natural and plantation forest management programs with the generation of forest food resources. Factors that could foster the forestry sector’s contribution to food security, among others, are research and innovation, education, involvement of local communities, and the role of government policy on forestry and food security in Sabah.

Food security issues, particularly forest resources, have gained increasing worldwide attention over the past few years. Although studies have discussed various food security contributions, few have addressed the connection between community livelihood with food security, particularly in social forestry areas. Thus, the study aims to address the gap from an overview of community livelihood and food security in various Asian countries. The study retrieved approximately 142 articles from different databases and filtered 71, highlighting 30 case studies related to social forestry and food security, published between 2010 and 2021 cross schemes in Asia. The key indicators of community livelihood and food security mainly stated access to forest area, consumption of forest resources and non-timber forest products. The findings could improve future planning and management of social forestry and enhance food security for rural development and community livelihood. Ultimately, the study proposed a framework of forest-food security linkages, specifically for social forestry areas.