Forest Conservation, Rights, and Diets: Untangling the Issues

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the contributions of forests and tree-based systems to both dietary diversity and nutrition as well as agricultural production in the form of tree-based ecosystem services. Wild foods provide a significant nutritional contribution to the diets of rural dwellers, the majority of whom would be classified as some of the world's poorest. Yet, despite the important human-forest interactions and relative degrees of forest dependency, access to much of the global forest estate is increasingly regulated under the guise of biodiversity conservation. How this restricted access plays out when the "right to food" is a deeply enshrined human right has been deeply contested, particularly with regard to land annexation. This paper outlines the critical issues related to dietary diversity and nutrition in the context of the availability of wild foods juxtaposed with the growing call for the annexation of land for conservation. We suggest that a more integrated and equitable approach to land management that embraces both biodiversity conservation and broader food security and nutrition goals can provide multiple benefits, while mitigating local conflicts. As such, a rights-based approach to conservation and an embracing of broader landscape perspectives are possible strategies to achieve these seemingly conflicting agendas.

A nutrient‐rich traditional insect for improving food security and reducing biodiversity loss in Madagascar and sub‐Saharan Africa

“…Unsustainable hunting threatens many of these animals with extinction (Rowland, Ickowitz, Powell, Nasi, & Sunderland, 2016). The hunting of threatened species is an untenable solution to long‐term food insecurity, jeopardizing these species' survival, the healthy functioning of ecosystems, and the cultural identity of local people (Gardner, Bicknell, Baldwin‐Cantello, Struebig, & Davies, 2019; Sunderland & Vasquez, 2020; Wilkie et al, 2016).…”

How the loss of forest fauna undermines the achievement of the SDGs

“…Nutrition and zero hunger (SDG 2) Wild meat can be an important source of nutrition for households living within and in close proximity to tropical forests. Recent studies provide insights into the linkages between SDG 2 and the loss of forest fauna, indicating that food security and several targets under SDG 2 are directly (e.g., target 2.1, 2.2) and indirectly (e.g., target 2.3, 2.4) related to defaunation (Rowland et al 2017;Sunderland and Vasquez 2020).…”

Contribution of forests and trees to food security and nutrition

“…The contributions of forests and trees to the access dimension of FSN depend also on access rights to forests and tree products. Protecting access and use rights to land, trees and other natural resources is critical for the FSN of many forest-dependent communities, especially the most vulnerable (FAO 2005;HLPE 2017;Sunderland and Vasquez 2020). Any single parcel or landscape is subject to a complex web of multiple access and use rights, that can be held by different stakeholders, simultaneously or successively (Fortmann and Bruce 1988;Bruce 1999;Fuys and Dohrn 2010).…”