FAO calls for better coordination between forestry and agriculture to improve food security
While agriculture
remains the most significant driver of global deforestation, there is
an urgent need to promote more positive interactions between
agriculture and forestry to build sustainable agricultural systems
and improve food security. This is the key message of the FAO's
flagship publication The State of the World's Forests (SOFO),
presented today at the opening of the 23d Session of the FAO
Committee on Forestry (COFO).
Forests play a major role in
sustainable agricultural development through a host of channels,
including the water cycle, soil conservation, carbon sequestration,
natural pest control, influencing local climates and providing
habitat protection for pollinators and other species.
"The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, as well as the Paris Agreement on climate change,
recognizes that we can no longer look at food security and the
management of natural resources separately,"said FAO
Director-General José Graziano da Silva in his opening remarks to
the Committee on Forestry." Both agreements call for a coherent
and integrated approach to sustainability across all agricultural
sectors and food systems. Forests and forestry have key roles to play
in this regard".
"The key message from SOFO is
clear: it is not necessary to cut down forests to produce more food,"
he added.
Agriculture accounts for the lion's
share of the conversion of forests. According to today's report, in
the tropics and subtropics large-scale commercial agriculture and
local subsistence agriculture are responsible for about 40 percent
and 33 percent of forest conversion, respectively, and the remaining
27 percent of deforestation happens due to urban growth,
infrastructure expansion and mining.
On the flip side of the coin, the
report stresses that forests serve many vital ecological functions
that benefit agriculture and boost food production.
"Food security can be achieved
through agricultural intensification and other measures such as
social protection, rather than through expansion of agricultural
areas at the expense of forests," said Eva Müller, Director of
FAO's Forestry Policy and Resources Division. "What we need is
better cross-sectoral coordination of policies on agriculture,
forestry, food and land use, better land use planning, effective
legal frameworks, and stronger involvement of local communities and
smallholders."
She added: "Governments should
provide local communities not only with secure land tenure but also
with secure forest tenure rights. A farmer knows best how to manage
his or her own resources but often lacks legal instruments to do so."
Improving food security while halting
deforestation
Well-managed forests have tremendous
potential to promote food security. Besides their vital ecological
contributions, forests contribute to rural livelihoods and poverty
alleviation through income generated by engaging in the production of
forest goods and environmental services. About 2.4 billion people
rely on woodfuel for cooking and water sterilization. And forest
foods provide protein, minerals and vitamins to rural diets and can
also serve as safety nets in periods of food scarcity.
According to SOFO, since 1990, over 20
countries succeeded in improving national levels of food security
while at the same time maintaining or increasing forest cover -
demonstrating that it is not necessary to cut down forests to produce
more food. Twelve of these countries increased forest cover by over
10 percent: Algeria, Chile, China, the Dominican Republic, the
Gambia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey,
Uruguay, Viet Nam.
Their successes all relied on a similar
set of tools: effective legal frameworks, secure land tenure,
measures to regulate land-use change, policy incentives for
sustainable agriculture and forestry, adequate funding, and clear
definition of roles and responsibilities of governments and local
communities.
Successful case studies
The report cites case studies from
seven countries - Chile, Costa Rica, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana,
Tunisia and Viet Nam - that illustrate the opportunities for
improving food security while increasing or maintaining forest cover.
Six of these countries achieved positive change in the period
1990-2015 in two food-security indicators - the prevalence of
undernourishment and the number of undernourished people - as well as
increases in forest area. The Gambia, the only low-income country
among the seven, succeeded in achieving the first goal of halving the
proportion of hungry people within the same period.
Viet Nam, for example, has implemented
a successful land reform to provide secure land tenure as a way of
encouraging long-term investment. This process was accompanied by a
shift from state forestry to multi-stakeholder forestry with the
active participation of local communities including a forest land
allocation programme and forest protection contracts with local
households. The land reform was also coupled with policy instruments
to increase agricultural productivity, including land tax exemptions,
soft loans, export promotion, price guarantees, support for
mechanization and reductions in postharvest losses.
In Costa Rica, deforestation reached
its peak in the 1980s, mainly due to the conversion of forest cover
to pastures. The country has since reversed this trend largely due to
the forest law, which now prohibits changes in land use from natural
forest, and its system of Payments for Environmental Services (PES),
which provides farmers with incentives to plant trees, and supports
forest conservation. As a result, forest cover has increased to
nearly 54 percent of the country's land area in 2015.
In Tunisia national development plans
recognize the beneficial role of forests in protecting land against
erosion and desertification. Agricultural production has increased
through intensification that makes better use of existing
agricultural land through irrigation, fertilizers, mechanization,
improved seeds and better farming practice. Incentives for
establishing forest plantations in the country include free seedlings
and compensation for the loss of agricultural income.
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