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Call for Papers
Environmental Conservation Themed
Issue on
Forests
and Food Security
With a likely global human population of
over 9 billion by 2050, issues
of food security and nutrition have been dominating academic and
policy
debates. Despite impressive productivity increases, conventional
agricultural
strategies have tended to result in unbalanced diets that lack
nutritional
diversity, enhance exposure of the most vulnerable groups to
volatile food
prices, and fail to recognise the long-term ecological
consequences of
intensified agricultural systems. Yet there is growing evidence
that forests
and agro-forestry systems complement conventional agricultural
production
systems, providing better and more nutritionally-balanced diets
and greater
control over food inputs particularly for marginalised groups
during periods of
vulnerability, and delivering a broad set of ecosystem services
which support
crop production.
The aim of this thematic issue is to provide
a forum for research that
explores the different ways in which forests and agroforestry
systems can be
managed as food provisioning systems, in addition to their
existing
contributions to the conservation landscape. Potential audiences
for this
contribution include scholars and policy makers working in
forest and related
sectors, as well as those working in the areas of food and
nutrition security
both locally and internationally. Priority
for the
special issue will be given to empirical papers, but
theoretical work that
crosses conventional disciplinary boundaries will also be
considered.
Potential topics include:
· What are the roles of forests
and agroforestry systems in
food security (e.g. directly in nutrition and health, and
indirectly in income
generation, nutrition, health and ecosystem services)?
· Do
forest and tree management
approaches contribute to sustainable food production systems?
· How do changes in forest use impact forest
roles in food security and
nutrition?
· What are the robust examples of forest-based
landscape level approaches
(e.g. land sparing/sharing, sustained intensification,
eco-agriculture) and
their delivering equitable, efficient and sustainable food
systems?
· How do land tenure
security, equity, access and rights for smallholders, and gender
equality
influence the role of forests in food systems?
· How do macro-level drivers (e.g. demographic
change, vulnerability and
changing food choices) affect potential roles of forests in food
systems?
· What are the relative roles of public
policies, markets and incentives
in altering the ways in which forests contribute to food
systems?
· What types of institutional and governance
changes are required to
support a transition towards a more integrated approach to
forests, food
security and nutrition?
Managing
Editor:
Bhaskar Vira, University of Cambridge, UK.
([log in to unmask]).
Submission Guidelines
Only original and unpublished high-quality
papers are considered and
manuscripts must be in English. Submitted papers have to (1) follow the
Instructions for Authors (http://tinyurl.com/pf4yr6o); (2) be submitted
via the journal web
submission route (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/envcon) and (3) in
the cover letter indicate
that the submission is for the “Forests
and Food Security” theme. Papers
not
fulfilling these conditions or submitted late, or insufficient
in number for a
substantial theme, may be published by the journal as regular
submissions. All papers will be submitted to a
rigorous peer-review process
and the fact that they are submitted to a themed issue
(solicited or not) does
not guarantee acceptance.
Important
Dates
Manuscript submission deadline: 31 January 2015,
Publication of themed issue: late 2015 (provisional)
-- Bhaskar Vira Department of Geography Downing Place Cambridge CB2 3EN E-mail: [log in to unmask] Ph: +44 (0)1223 339823 Fax: +44 (0)1223 333392 http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/vira