The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) was established in 2010 as the science-policy interface of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The HLPE aims to improve the robustness of policy making by providing independent, evidence-based analysis and advice at the request of CFS.
Full documents obtainable through the website
http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/en/
The HLPE Report summary just published includes recommendations on trees, forests and food security and nutrition with the following point on health and well-being: 'Human health and well-being: Forests, tree-based agricultural systems and forestry impact human health in a diversity of ways, including: provisioning of food, medicinal plants, fuelwood, clean water and income. Empirical evidence suggests that forest environments can improve peoples’ mental health and reduce depression and stress.'
Overall recommendations (sorry, numbering lost in the copying...):
DEVELOP AND USE POLICY-RELEVANT KNOWLEDGE ON THE DIRECT AND INDIRECT CONTRIBUTIONS OF FORESTS AND TREES TO FSN
States and academic institutions should take measures to inform and train FSN policy makers and practitioners about the importance of sustainable forests for FSN. This should be done using participatory methodologies that enable the co-construction of knowledge about the contributions of forests and trees to FSN, at different spatial and temporal scales.
In particular, they should:
Build the necessary capacities, professional training and organisational changes needed for participatory expertise and research.
Design metrics and collect data that are disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, social class, age, and other social parameters, to measure the multiple, direct and indirect, contributions that forests and trees make to FSN through production, ecological processes, income and livelihoods, cultures and well-being, with a particular focus on the FSN status of forest- dependent people.
Gather data on nutritional trade-offs between increased income and changing diets on the one hand, and sociocultural, economic, environmental and health impacts of deforestation and forest degradation on FSN on the other hand.
Improve trans-sectorial, systemic data collection in FSN and forestry monitoring systems, on the use of wild foods (animals, plants, mushrooms) and forest products, including for dietary quality and diversity, poverty alleviation, health and medicinal purposes, as well as harvest impacts, to ensure long-term availability of wild foods and forest products.
Strengthen FAO INFOODS studies on the nutrient composition of wild foods.
ENHANCE THE ROLE OF FORESTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES AT ALL SCALES WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD OF FOREST-DEPENDENT PEOPLE
All stakeholders should use an ecosystem approach to promote the sustainable management of forests and trees, from local to global levels, in order to preserve ecosystem functions of forests and trees, as well as their contributions to FSN.
In particular, states, IGOs, NGOs and other stakeholders should:
a. Recognize and enhance the role of forests and trees in regulating climate, water cycle and
water quality, as well as in biodiversity conservation.
b. Promote the role of forests and trees to limit soil erosion and land degradation, and to restore land.
c. Consider how the implementation of initiatives designed to address environmental issues will affect local communities’ and indigenous peoples’ access to forest foods, and how this might impact dietary diversity and quality.
SUPPORT THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF FORESTS TO IMPROVE LIVELIHOODS AND ECONOMIES FOR FSN
States and the private sector should:
Develop and promote participatory forest planning and management policies and measures that enable access to nutritionally important forest foods, in particular for forest dependent communities and indigenous peoples.
Promote and enable income generation and livelihoods opportunities in local communities, through the sustainable management and use of forest resources, particularly for those living in mountains and other remote areas.
Integrate low-carbon, renewable energy schemes in forest management plans to achieve multiple benefits, including adequate access to fuel for food preparation.
Increase public investments to support community-driven, forest-based enterprises for sustainable livelihoods, culture and well-being.
Invest in social and technical innovations to minimize health risks associated with the use of fuelwood and wood stoves.
Develop transformative, transparent and understandable marketing information systems for non-wood forest products.
Strengthen the contribution of forests and trees, within landscape mosaics, in the provision of fundamental ecosystem services to support agricultural production, including pollination and water and nutrient cycling.
Promote integrated planning and local adaptive management of landscapes with strong acknowledgement of the multiple functions and uses of forests and trees.
Promote a nutrition-sensitive landscape approach to integrate the multiple goals of FSN, sustainable forestry, land use, and biodiversity conservation for human, animal and ecosystems health.
Promote and invest in research and technologies aiming at developing and up-scaling diverse suitable agroforestry systems within integrated landscape mosaics.
Ensure that governance mechanisms at different scales enable sustainable integrated landscape approaches that: articulate different functions of forests and trees (including wood and food production, biodiversity conservation and sociocultural benefits); consider short and long-term objectives; recognize and reduce conflicts between stakeholders.
PROMOTE MULTIFUNCTIONAL LANDSCAPES FOR FSN THAT INTEGRATE FORESTS AND TREES AS KEY COMPONENTS
States, IGOs, local authorities, conservations agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders should:
ACKNOWLEDGE THE IMPORTANCE AND STRENGTHEN THE ROLE OF FORESTS AND TREES IN ENHANCING RESILIENCE AT LANDSCAPE, COMMUNITY AND HOUSEHOLD LEVELS FOR FSN
States, IGOs, local authorities, conservations agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders should:
a. Identify and strengthen the ways in which forests and trees contribute to build resilience at landscape, community and household levels.
b. Develop integrated food-forestry systems building on local knowledge that contribute to enhance resilience of landscapes, communities and livelihoods.
c. Strengthen the capacity of forest-dependent and indigenous peoples, local communities, local organizations and national institutions to mainstream and enhance the concept of resilience of landscapes, communities and households in policies, plans and projects that address the forest-FSN nexus.
d. Determine and provide the institutional and financial requirements to integrate and implement resilience-enhancing dimensions of forests and trees into policies and programs.
RECOGNIZE AND RESPECT LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCE TENURE AND USE RIGHTS OVER FORESTS AND TREES FOR FSN
States should:
Ensure local communities’, forest dependent communities’ and indigenous peoples’ access to and use of forest resources for the realization of their right to adequate food.
Ensure that policies, legislation and programmes that affect forests and trees respect and ensure the rights of indigenous peoples, smallholders and marginalized communities, including the rights of indigenous peoples over their genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
Legally protect customary land and natural resource tenure and use rights of food insecure people over forests and trees for FSN through formal instruments consistent with legal frameworks.7
Ensure and enforce access, use and tenure rights of vulnerable and marginalized groups to forests and trees, especially in the face of large-scale infrastructure development as well as land grabbing and the establishment or expansion of protected areas.
Collaboratively develop rights-based initiatives with indigenous peoples to enhance the productivity and resilience of forests and tree-based systems, and incorporate these initiatives into policies, programmes and practices.
STRENGTHEN INCLUSIVE FOREST GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS ACROSS SECTORS AND SCALES FOR FSN
States and other stakeholders should:
a. Strengthen policy coherence across forestry, agriculture, education and other sectors at different scales, in order to ensure sustainable forest management strategies for improved FSN.
b. Promote effective incentives for the sustainable production and consumption of forest products for FSN.
c. Promote a rights-based approach to the governance of forests and trees for FSN, ensuring compliance with international human rights law and standards,8 including standards of transparency and accountability.
d. Ensure that laws, policies, and programmes affecting forests and trees avoid or minimize negative impacts on FSN, create forest governance regimes that incorporate FSN concerns, clearly define the roles, rights and obligations of various stakeholders, and are effectively enforced.
e. Ensure the full and effective participation of all relevant stakeholders in forest policy development, governance, and management at all scales, particularly of women as well as vulnerable and marginalized groups, including indigenous peoples, and forest-dependent communities, by providing them adequate support and capacity building.
f. Ensure the full and effective participation of concerned stakeholders, including indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities in order to integrate FSN concerns in the creation and management of protected areas.
e.g.: UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; CFS Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT), Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW).
Including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the CEDAW, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and the CFS VGGT.
g. Facilitate the implementation of processes that take into account the impacts of forestry management on FSN at different spatial and temporal scales.
h. Ensure that forest certification schemes include FSN concerns of all stakeholders by facilitating their full and effective participation.
i. Promote inclusive co-management and co-production initiatives that are co-developed with relevant stakeholders, including through concessions, and corporate and social responsibility schemes.
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