FORESTS, TREES AND FOOD

Forestry Economics and Policy Division

FORESTS, TREES AND FOOD

Autores

Descripción

Millions of households in the developing world depend on food and fodder from forests to supplement their own and their livestock's diets. Although forest foods do not usually provide a complete diet, they do make a critical contribution to the food supply. Forest foods increase the nutritional quality of rural diets; supplement other sources of food -particularly agricultural crops that are only seasonally available; and are used as emergency food supplies during drought, famine and war. Fore st foods are nutritionally important and are traditionally used as supplements to the staple diet. Leafy vegetables and wild animals add diversity, flavour, vitamins and minerals to characteristically grain-dominated diets. Forest foods are often collected and stored for later use. Forest foods can thus raise rural peoples' nutritional intake by providing a year-round supply of food. The most important and well documented use of forest foods is in meeting seasonal shortfalls such as the `hunge r periods' at the beginning of the rainy season before crops are ready for harvest. During hunger periods, the practices of digging for roots and tubers and gathering fruit and nuts are almost universal. Other gaps in food supply are caused by sudden needs for cash-for school fees, for example -which force families to sell crops. Such demands leave families short of both food and the money they need to buy food. Trees are also important in emergencies such as drought and famine. They provide f ood when crops fail and products such as gum arabic to sell for cash income with which to buy food. Energy-rich foods such as the roots of the baobab tree are most sought after in times of famine, while other foods, such as the baobab's fruits, are often eaten during periodic shortages of staple foods. Several wild foods are used only in times of scarcity and famine, among them fibres, seeds, tubers, leaves and stems.