Diversifying food systems and diets to include nutrient-rich species can help reduce malnutrition, while contributing other multiple benefits including healthy ecosystems.
Nairobi, 25 July 2016: We should conserve and revive nutritious traditional edible biodiversity, and include it in diets for better health. At the same time we need to explore the nutritional value, cultural significance and market success of traditional foods for everyday diets. Preserving local edible biodiversity, the lifeblood of what we eat, is in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and essential if we want to feed the world’s growing population in a sustainable, healthy and environmentally-sound manner.
Biodiversity underpins the sustainability of agricultural production by providing the genetic diversity and material needed to drive innovation and adaptation, as well as essential ecosystem services and processes.
These are some of the main ideas being promoted by an important project called Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use for Improved Human Nutrition and Well-being (BFN for short), funded by the Global Environment Facility, the world’s largest public funder of international environmental projects.Plant and animal biodiversity, both wild and cultivated, is crucial for feeding future generations, it believes.
“Population growth and increasing urbanization are coinciding with an increase of health problems related to poor nutrition around the world. There is no one simple, quick answer, but healthy environments and biodiversity are part of the solution,” says Marieta Sakalian, Senior Programme Management/Liaison Officer (CGIAR/FAO), Biodiversity, and GEF Regional Programme Coordinator Europe and CIS.
The project, details of which can be found on the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (BFN) website, is led by Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey and coordinated by Bioversity International with implementation support from UNEP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. National partners come from relevant ministries, the scientific community, non-government organizations, civil society and local communities.
The problem
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s The State of Food Security in the World, 2015, globally, some 795 million people are undernourished and many people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies, such as iron deficiency, which the World Health Organization estimates affects 30 per cent of the world’s population; 2.1 billion people are estimated to be overweight or obese, according to The Lancet. One in three people are malnourished in one form or another, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (2016).
This is largely a reflection of changes in our food production system whereby agricultural production remains focused on increasing the production of a narrow number of staple crops and animal breeds causing diets to become more uniform and simplified.
Much of our food biodiversity has been neglected or lost, yet it has huge potential to provide the natural richness of nutrients humans require. The reason more of these local foods are not being consumed in larger quantities is because data on their nutritional properties is missing or incomplete; in some cases imported foreign, less nutritious, foods have taken their place; also, cultivating these crops and bringing them to market is labour-intensive and time-consuming, meaning that their production is often unreliable and unsustainable.
The BFN project aims to reverse this trend and strengthen the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity for food and nutrition by i) improving the knowledge base of wild and cultivated edible biodiversity native to each country; ii) using the data to influence policy to protect this diversity; and iii) raising awareness of the importance of conserving and using this diversity to improve diets in the four project countries and beyond.
Local solutions
The four project partner countries are exploring local solutions to diet-related nutrition and health conditions, such as nutrient deficiencies and obesity.
Four native forest fruits in Brazil – camu-camu (1888mg), mangaba (332 mg), cerrado cashew (294mg) and jabuticaba (238mg) – contain at least 3 times the amount of vitamin C per 100g of pulp compared to common varieties of orange (53mg), banana (21,6mg) and papaya (82,9mg).
Kenya has carried out food composition analysis of local landraces of finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and bambara nut (Vigna subterranea) and compared their nutritional value to improved varieties as well as to more commonly consumed crops. Results show that local landraces of finger millet are higher in protein, iron, potassium and zinc and that they contain on average six times more iron and twice as much fibre as commonly consumed maize. Local landraces of Bambara groundnut were found to be lower in fat and sodium and higher in fibre than commonly consumed groundnut varieties, with almost double the potassium content and very high level of antioxidants.
With convincing evidence of the nutritional quality of local crops, BFN has linked a farmer group working with the project to a local school. Farmers are growing the crops on school land and delivering the produce directly to the school kitchen at an agreed price. By virtue of this agreement, the school can now offer its 410 students a variety of highly nutritious local crops such as cowpea (kunde), amaranth (dodo) and slender leaf (miroo) without incurring in additional costs (higher market prices for local crops often hinder their use in school meals). This has helped diversify and improve student diets; revive interest in local food culture; and contribute to farmer livelihoods and incomes. (See: African leafy vegetables in Mundika kill three birds with one stone ).
In western Kenya the BFN Initiative is working with policy stakeholders from Busia County to develop a Biodiversity Conservation Policy that takes into account the importance of conserving nutrient-rich traditional foods such as cowpea, amaranth, arrow root and sorghum to increase diet quality and access to key micronutrients, particularly for mothers and children.
Raising awareness is also important: BFN Brazil has demonstrated great success in collaborating with local partners and schools to raise awareness about BFN, with a view to promoting greater utilization of edible species of native Brazilian flora, such as juçara. Through collaboration with the National Fund for Educational Development and the Centre for Excellence in Tourism of the University of Brasília, a project called Educating through School Gardens and Gastronomy is guiding a number of schools in setting up tree nurseries for native species and growing non-conventional leafy vegetables in school gardens in collaboration with Embrapa Hortaliças, to encourage healthy eating habits, dietary diversification and greater appreciation of Brazilian biodiversity.
The Aegean region of western Turkey represents one of the pilot sites for the BFN project and the annual four-day Alaçatı festival provides an excellent opportunity to elaborate how the project plans to support the age-old traditions of using wild edible plants, and the local cuisines and food cultures based on this biodiversity.
Breaking new ground
Countries like Brazil are showing that it is possible to include pro-poor and pro-biodiversity policies in government plans. Brazil’s recently passed Ordinance Nº 163 on Sociobiodiversity breaks new ground. For the first time a country is mainstreaming biodiversity for enhanced food and nutrition security. "Brazilian Sociobiodiversity Native Food Species of Nutritional Value" are now officially (as of 18 May 2016) defined and recognized.
The Ordinance will contribute greatly to better understanding and dissemination of knowledge on these species, which will ultimately enhance their promotion and sustainable use.
Brazil has been engaged in a number of related activities for a while: The Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Planning engaged 32 government agencies and identified 23 priority actions to reverse biodiversity loss and this is now embedded in a revised National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP - includes the utilization of native plant species with actual or potential economic value as a successful measure of biodiversity conservation); $60 million was pledged to protect biodiversity for food and nutrition in 2015; and scientific knowledge on the nutritional value of 70 native fruit species now informs public policies on nutrition, school feeding, family farming, food security and sustainable use of biodiversity.
BFN is closely related to The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, a global initiative led by UNEP and focused on “making nature’s values visible”.
Who benefits and how?
The main beneficiaries are individuals, households and communities, especially women and children.
BFN aims to improve linkages to markets and hence livelihoods; increase resilience of farming systems and the sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity; conserve targeted biodiversity species on almost 500,000 hectares in project sites; and document and preserve knowledge associated with targeted biodiversity.
It also aims to develop national databases on the nutritional properties of local agrobiodiversity and associated traditional knowledge, link them to relevant national and global nutritional databases, and assess the contribution of agrobiodiversity to food composition and consumption patterns.
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Secretary-General of the Conventionon Biological Diversity (CBD),in a foreword to a recent book on BFN, says:
Agricultural biodiversity was first addressed in a comprehensive manner by the CBD in 1996. The CBD programme of work on agricultural biodiversity was detailed in 2000, and three related initiatives have since been launched: on soil biodiversity; on pollinators; and on biodiversity for food and nutrition… Commitments to more sustainable food production and other policies that promote biodiversity-friendly practices will also support the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Major shifts in policies and approaches are required to achieve food security in all its dimensions: availability of sufficient food, access to it by all, good nutritional quality, and stability of supply.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents an opportunity to move beyond business-as-usual to more holistic approaches to food and nutrition security.
For more information, please contact: Marieta Sakalian and/or check out the BFN Project website http://www.b4fn.org/: Marieta.Sakalian@unep.org
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