Focusing on forest-based activities can help to boost sustainability and reduce hunger in low- and middle-income countries, new research from the University of Notre Dame has found.
Its study, which was published in the journal Food Security, found that households in Liberia involved in forest-based activities, such as collecting timber, hunting bushmeat, and gathering edible plants, saw an 84% reduction in food scarcity.
Conducted by Daniel C. Miller, associate professor of environmental policy at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, and Festus Amadu, assistant professor of climate policy at Florida Gulf Coast University, the research utilised data from a 2019 survey by the Liberian government and the World Bank. This survey collected information from nearly 3,000 households near forests in all 15 counties of Liberia.
‘Vital source’ of food security
“Previous research has shown that forests benefit people, but now we have evidence on a national scale,” Miller said. “Forests are a vital source of food security for forest-adjacent households in Liberia, the most forested country in West Africa.”
Factors contributing to food insecurity in Liberia include extreme weather, political instability, and poor agricultural productivity due to natural resource depletion. Forests, being more resilient to some of these stresses, are increasingly crucial for reducing food insecurity in such regions, where they cover 69% of Liberia’s land area, the study found.
“Forests do a lot of things for us as human beings, and yet their manifold contributions are not systematically studied and documented,” Miller added “While forests will never substitute for agriculture on any large scale, they can serve as an important food source, particularly in lean times.”
The role of forests
The study’s methodology, which used forest-specific data on a national scale, could be applied to other forest-rich, economically poor countries to better understand forests’ role in mitigating food insecurity and boosting biodiversity, he suggested.
“Forests can and should be considered by national governments in other countries not only for their climate and environmental benefits, but for their potential to support human development and well-being,” he said.
The full study can be found here.
