Nutritious foods from Forests Side Event took place at FAO on 11 October, 2013. Forests harbour a large number of woody plants, climbers, herbs, insects and wild animals that provide nutritious foods, important for the diets of many people in developing countries. The International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition hosted by FAO in May 2013, highlighted the important role of forests, agroforestry systems and trees on farm for food security and nutrition The side event aims at increasing the understanding of the contribution of forests and trees to sustainable diets by sharing lessons from the field. In this presentation Bioversity International researcher and 'Beyond Timber' project coordinator discusses the traditional management systems of forest-based foods and a case study from the Congo Basin. Read more about Bioversity's work in forest foods: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/trees-for-food/

1. Traditional management systems of forest-based foods
J. Tieguhong, L. Snook, H. Taedoumg, P. Maukonen
Side event: Nutritious foods from forests
Committee on World Food Security (CFS) 40: 7-11 October 2013

2. Forests and food security in the Congo Basin
Congo Basin forests (about 200m+
ha) are the 2nd largest rainforest
block in the world yet 40% is
allocated to commercial logging
companies
• Significant source of timber and
non timber forest products
(NTFPs)
• Logging activities have an impact
on tropical forests, tree resources
and forest-dependent people.
•

3. Tree resources and local food uses
Tree species
Uses
Main food products used by local people
Baillonella toxisperma (Moabi)
Fruits, oil
Entandrophragma cylindricum (Sapelli)
Caterpillars
(Imbrasia oyemensis),
Medicinal barks
Erythrophleum suavolense (Tali)
Caterpillars (Cirina
forda),
Fruits used in fishing
Bioversity International/Tieguhong J

4. Importance of forest foods to household nutrition
Some forest foods
have been found to
be:
•Richer in energy
content than
bananas - high lipid
contents
•Richer in minerals
(Fe, Ca, Na) &
vitamins (A, C, & E)
than banana
•Good for nutrition
and health.

5. Traditional management & local knowledge
•Traditional management involves mainly visual
monitoring and commitment to memory
photos
•Indigenous knowledge on location of species and
times of collection important
•Changes in phenology, growth etc. observed
during collection and communicated to village
members
•Knowledge passed down through generations
•Villagers collect forest foods from Moabi, Sapelli
and Tali on daily trips: average travel < 4 km,
hardly > 6.5 km.
Bioversity InternationalP. Maukonen

6. Challenges to traditional management
•
Logging (legal or illegal) can undermine availability of
some forest foods from trees in concessions
•
Gender imbalance & women’s lack of voice, (e.g.
elite influence promoting illegal logging of forest
foods producing trees)
•
Increasing population & increasing demand on
resources
•
Villagers’ perception that trees take too long to grow
(option for planting not taken seriously).

7. Opportunities for sustaining resources
•
Potential to plant
–
•
mother trees, copious sprouting of seeds, abundance of
wildlings
Awareness and protection
–
consciousness amongst concessionaires & women to protect &
retain food providing trees
•
Deliberate policy and promotion to increase the
density of food providing trees for present & future
generations
•
Modernization of existing processing techniques
to make transformation and sale more feasible.
Bioversity International/J. Tieguhong

8. Project partners:

9. Thank you
Bioversity International/Tieguhong J.
www.bioversityinternational.org

10. Thank you
Bioversity International/Tieguhong J.
www.bioversityinternational.org