Forests for food security and nutrition

FAO News

Income derived from forest products and services supports better access to food and nutrition, not only for those who earn income directly from forests but indirectly in rural communities through consumption and investment links. Forest and farm producer organizations help rural communities increase their capacity to start and manage businesses, sell their products, and access social and cultural services.

Cooking is the main way to ensure proper nutrient absorption. Globally, an estimated 2.4 billion people use woodfuel for cooking, and forests, therefore, play a key role in household food security and nutrition. About 765 million people (10.9 percent of global population) use wood energy to sterilize their water by boiling it, which is often the only available means for forest-dependent communities to obtain safe drinking water and water for food-processing.

Forests provide many essential ecosystem services. For example, forest ecosystem services support agricultural, livestock and fishery production through water regulation, soil protection, nutrient circulation, pest control and pollination. Forests are essential for the conservation of biodiversity, thereby ensuring the maintenance of gene pools for diverse, nutritious food and medicinal crops. Forests are crucial for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, thus helping reduce climate-related food insecurity. 

Despite the multiple benefits of forests for food security and nutrition, forest resources in some regions are being seriously depleted, with an estimated global net forest loss of 10 million hectares in 2015–2020, and very large areas of forest have been degraded. Agricultural conversion is the main cause of forest loss, compounded by factors such as poverty, poor governance, population growth, lack of capacity and insecure forest tenure for local communities.

Often, forest policies focus on economic efficiency and do not consider the contribution of forests to sustainable food security and nutrition. The conversion of forests to other land uses can have long-term environmental and livelihood impacts, primarily on forest-dependent communities but also more broadly.