11 May 2013: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released a series of background papers for the conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition, which is convening from 13-15 May 2013 in Rome, Italy.

The meeting responds to the fact that, while forests, trees and agroforestry contribute heavily to food security and nutrition, their role is poorly reflected in national development and food security strategies. The meeting will highlight the contributions of forests to food security and nutrition, identify challenges and bottlenecks, and explore policy options to increase the role of forests.

Seven background papers have been developed for the meeting. On forests, food security and gender, the FAO notes the differentiated roles of men and women in forestry and agroforestry systems, stressing the importance of empowering women to create development opportunities that enhance food security and improve management of forest food resources. On promoting decent employment in forestry for improved nutrition and food security, the FAO calls for increasing entrepreneurship opportunities that do not result in deforestation and forest degradation, improving working conditions for forest workers, and improving social dimensions of forest workers unions and certification schemes.

With respect to a right to food, the FAO stresses the need to strengthen the capacity of communities in gathering non-wood forest products (NWFP) sustainably, to ensure that laws do not lead to violations of the right to food, and to build stakeholder knowledge of NWFP knowledge and experience. On agroforestry, food and nutritional security, the FAO describes challenges relating to policy and market constraints, under-investment in research, and calls for agroforestry policies that reform land and tree tenure for small-scale farmers to help recognize agroforestry as an important investment option. The FAO stresses that opportunities for improving the contributions of forests to sustainable diets are largely untapped, and that research followed by explicit strategies and programs are needed to bring together nutrition, food security, environment, agriculture, health and land-use planning.

On ecosystem based approaches, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) contributed a policy paper that underscores how ecosystem degradation reduces resilience and food productivity, calling for integrated ecosystem management approaches into policies and actions. Finally, the World Bank’s Program on Forests (PROFOR), explores empirical evidence on the role of forests and trees as household safety nets, stressing the need to focus on landscape level approaches to the role of forests in rural development.

The meeting is coordinated by the FAO Forestry Department in collaboration with the World Bank, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bioversity International and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). CIFOR, Bioversity International and ICRAF are members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

[Conference Website] [Bioversity Press Release] [Publication: Forests, food security and gender: linkages, disparities and priorities for action] [Publication: Promoting decent employment in forestry for improved nutrition and food security] [Publication: A right to food based approach to enhance the contribution of non-wood forest products to food security and nutrition] [Publication: Agroforestry, food and nutritional security] [Publication: The contribution of forests to sustainable diets] [Publication: Food security policies: making the ecosystem connections] [Publication: Bouncing back: forests, trees and resilient households]