Research
Zooming in on nutrition-sensitive landscapes
At Nutrition-sensitive landscapes, a CIFOR and ICRAF organized side-event at the Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition, Bioversity International's researcher Céline Termote spoke about putting people at the centre of the landscapes approach: "Food is an expression of their culture, we must not forget that," she said. Photo: CIFOR
International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition
The International Conference on Forests, Food Security and Nutrition will take place at FAO in Rome, Italy from 13-15 May, 2013. The Conference aims to increase understanding of the crucial role that forests, trees and agroforestry systems can play in improving the food security and nutrition of rural people, especially in developing countries.
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Sustainable forest resources in the Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique: A Bioversity Project Report
Inselberg on the way to Niassa. Photo: Laura Snook/Bioversity International
The Niassa National Reserve (NNR) extends over 42,000 km2 along the Mozambique border with Tanzania and includes one of the least disturbed areas of Africa’s deciduous miombo woodlands. It was established to protect wildlife and also includes populations of a number of the world’s threatened tree species.
A Bioversity project is studying the relationship between the people living in the reserve and the tree species that are important to them. Researchers are examining if the use of these trees is placing them under threat, and if so, will recommend sustainable alternatives to the reserve managers.
About 40,000 people live in the reserve and use the trees for many purposes: providing fuelwood for home cooking and producing charcoal for sale; food, medicine, timber for construction, carving cultural objects, dugouts, fishing rods, fish traps, furniture, talismans and as honey sources. Honey hunting (as opposed to producing) is practiced by some rural people and others catch and smoke fish from the rivers, for sale outside of the reserve.
Theirs is not a cash-based society - on average they earn about $35 US per year - and people there eke out a precarious existence. Homes do not have electricity, or floors, let alone motorised vehicles, and only some can boast of a bicycle. They grow a small number of crops that can withstand low soil fertility and are moderately productive in spite of the long dry season. Chickens and occasionally goats are in evidence at some of the better-off households.
Project partners
Bioversity is working with a group of highly committed and qualified Mozambican scientists from the National Agricultural Research Institute (IIAM), the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), and the reserve management, the Society for the Management and Development of the Niassa Reserve (SGDRN). We are also working with scientists at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, (BOKU).
Trees having edible fruit or leaves are especially important in times of food shortage; the between time after last year’s harvest runs out and before the next one is collected. As a young local man explained, “In times of crisis, trees are our friends."
Trees are necessary for people’s well-being in the Reserve, but people threaten the same trees by their land uses and practices. One of the stranger things from the perspective of an outsider is the common practice of pedestrians setting fires as they walk, to reduce the threat of attacks by wild animals such as elephants or lions. Illegal loggers also pose a threat. They come into the reserve from Tanzania and set up temporary camps where they fell and rough-saw the most valuable trees and transport them back to Tanzania.
Our task in the reserve is to discover whether and why tree species that are important to the people living there, are threatened by their activities, and to provide recommendations to the reserve management about alternatives and workable solutions to maintain the tree species and improve people’s well-being. It is a difficult balance because if people’s lives improve substantially, more people may move into the reserve, threatening the wildlife and the habitat that wild species need.
Fresh grass after burn. Credits: Laura Snook/Bioversity International
The first phase of the project is now completed - a survey of households to find out how people use the trees. The second phase, carrying out ecological research to understand the impacts to the trees, will be carried out in summer, 2011.
The final stage of the project is to work with the people living in the Reserve to develop recommendations for Reserve managers to help them manage people and trees sustainably and create a model for wider dissemination.
For more information, contact:
Judy Loo
 | Bioversity International is a member of the CGIAR consortium |
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This work by Bioversity International is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. |
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