I would like to thank everyone for the useful and insightful contributions to the Forum. The discussions clearly reflect the various ways forests and trees can contribute to food and nutrition security and sustainable diets.
Many contributions have identified the linkages to nutrition, from capitalizing on existing indigenous knowledge to making the rural-urban linkage in forestry and nutrition. We have widespread agreement that ending hunger and malnutrition requires a multisectoral approach, and that forests and trees are fundamental in achieving sustainable solutions to these problems.
Sincere thanks are due to the organizers for initiating this highly participatory global discussion on forests for food and nutrition security, and, again, to all the participants for their very substantial and high-quality contributions.
We look forward to meeting many of you at the International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition from May 13 to 15, 2013, at the FAO (Rome). The Nutrition Division has been particularly involved in the preparation of Parallel Session 3 (The Role of Forests and Trees in Sustainable Diets) and we invite you to attend so we can continue with these lively discussions.
Yours sincerely,
Barbara Burlingame
Principal Nutrition Officer (ESN)
FAO
Barbara Burlingame