agricultural and tree biodiversity for healthy diets and healthy landscapes
TRANSCRIPT
Agricultural and tree biodiversity for healthy diets
& healthy landscapes2nd International Congress on Hidden Hunger, Hohenheim, March 5, 2015
Dr. Stephan Weise, Deputy Director General, Research,
Bioversity International delivers scientific evidence,
management practices and policy options to use and
safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain
sustainable global food and nutrition security.
Who we are
Reaching planetary boundaries
Rockstrom et al., Sep 2009 Nature
Why agricultural & tree biodiversity?
BIODIVERSITY
AGRICULTURAL
BIODIVERSITY
• Source of genetic material vital for future
generations.
• Allows farmers to limit the spread of pests &
diseases.
• Provides more crop options to buffer against
extreme climactic events.
• Sustains soil health, food & habitat for
important pollinators and natural pest
predators.
• Maintains cultural identity and traditional
knowledge.
• Provides diverse nutrient content and dietary
diversity through many available species and
varieties within a species.
Challenge – land degradation
FAO 2011
Challenge - fewer crops contributing to overall food supply
What are potential solutions?
Photo: Floating market in Indonesia: Credit: Bioversity International/F. De La Cruz
• To improve diets (and nutrition outcomes) we need to make significant
changes in how we produce, process, transport, market and consume
foods.
• Requires a new way of understanding food systems.
• Need to understand what types of diets have lowest environmental impact
while addressing human nutrient needs.
• Dietary choices matter: diets – environment - health
Healthy diets, healthy landscapes
Moving towards sustainable diets for sustainable development
Tilman and Clark, Nov 2014 Nature
Multi-functionality of diversity
Monoculture Diversified cropping systems
Photo credit: University of British Colombia/Sean Smukler
Pollinators: Important for productivity and diets
Ellis et al 2015 Plos One
Econutrition approach
Declerck et al 2011 FNBPhoto: Sorghum , Ghana : Credit: Bioversity International/C. Zanzanaini
• Determinants of poor nutrition often rooted in poverty and inequity.
• Meeting nutrient needs of families while keeping costs to a minimum, improving resilience, and respecting cultural traditions remains a challenge.
• For many populations, local and traditional foods, including wild foods, can play an important role as a safety net during difficult periods or to complement diets with essential nutrients.
• However, for most of these species, little is known about their nutritional value, safety, availability, use, and consumption patterns and their subsequent impact on human health and nutrition.
Cost of Diets and Value Chain Approaches
Potential of wild foods to reduce the cost of a
nutritionally adequate diet
• Adding wild foods to modelled diets
resulted in a lower-cost diet, while
meeting recommended iron intakes
for women and children between 12
and 23 months of age.
• Even after integrating wild foods into
the model, targeted approaches are
needed to meet micronutrient
requirements for infants from 6 to 8
and from 9 to 11 months of age.
Termote et al 2014 FNB
Case study in Baringo
District, Eastern Kenya
• Integrating nutrition into ecosystem benefits.
• Thinking on temporal and spatial scales across landscapes.
• Providing multi-functional benefits across different systems:
diets, environment and health.
• Understanding synergies and trade-offs in achieving dietary
quality while ensuring enhanced conservation of water, soils,
forest and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.
• Combining local knowledge with good science to leverage
sustainable solutions
Summary: Healthy diets, Healthy Landscapes
www.bioversityinternational.org
Thank you