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Forests, food security and gender: linkages, disparities and priorities for action

Background paper for the International Conference on Forests for Food and Nutrition, FAO, Rome, 13-15 May, 2013. Paper 1








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    Technical Support for Institutional and Capacity Enhancement on Gender-Sensitive Fisheries Management and Conservation - TCP/CMB/3705 2022
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    Fisheries are critically important for Cambodia With about 32 percent of the country consisting of either permanent or seasonal wetlands, and 435 km of coastline along estuaries, bays and islands, fisheries make a large contribution to diet and livelihoods In terms of food security, the apparent annual per capita consumption of fish is estimated to be 52 kg and as high as 76 kg in flood plain areas, representing about 70 percent of Cambodia’s intake of animal protein Overall, around 6 million people are involved in fisheries, around 50 percent of them are women, assuming major roles in cleaning, sorting and grading fish catches, although precise analysis on gender and child labour roles and involvement is still lacking and there is a recognized need to collect more sex disaggregated and gender specific data and information At present, it is estimated that 70 percent of Cambodian women and 59 percent of men are engaged in vulnerable employment, often in the agricultural sector, including fisheries Rural women often play a double role when contributing to household livelihoods, in reproductive and productive tasks (often unpaid) through the fish value chain.
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    Sustainable management of Miombo woodlands
    Food security, nutrition and wood energy
    2018
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    The Miombo woodland is a vast African dryland forest ecosystem covering close to 2.7 million km2 across southern Africa (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The woodlands are characterized by the dominance of Brachystegia species, either alone or in association with Julbernardia and Isoberlinia species. It is estimated that the woodlands – through their numerous goods and services which include various non-wood forest products (NWFPs) (e.g. insects, mushrooms, fruits, tubers, medicine, fodder, honey, seeds) and woodfuels, which, for simplicity, will be referred to as non-timber forest products, or NTFPs, throughout the publication – sustain the livelihoods of more than 100 million rural poor and 50 million urban people. The charcoal sector alone employs vast numbers of rural people and offers additional income to many poor rural families. Communities moreover rely directly on the woodlands for food and nutrition. NWFPs add vital micro- and macronutrients to local diets and contribute to diversified food systems, while woodfuel is essential for cooking and sterilizing, thus ensuring proper nutrient absorption and providing clean water for drinking. Forests and trees, if managed sustainably, are an important source of resilience for rural people in the Miombo woodlands, supporting households to absorb and recover from climatic or economic calamities and contributing to resolving the underlying causes of food insecurity, undernutrition and poverty by providing nutritious edible products and woodfuel for cooking in addition to conserving biodiversity and water resources, buffering extreme weather conditions and preventing land degradation and desertification. Generally speaking, it is now accepted that forests managed for both timber and NTFPs retain more biodiversity and resilience than forests managed solely for one aspect, e.g. timber and exotic timber plantations. However, a growing population in high need of agricultural land and unsustainable use and overharvesting of natural resources in parts of the Miombo woodlands, combined with climate change impacts (e.g. drought, fires), leave insufficient time for many trees and associated species to regenerate naturally, posing a serious threat to the products and services of the woodlands, and to the livelihoods depending on them. Compounding the problem and hindering development of the Miombo ecosystem, are: i) lack of an enabling policy environment; ii) unsustainable management; iii) limited willingness and ability to pay for and access to energy-efficiency technologies; iv) inadequate awareness and information, including technical capacity; v) high poverty levels; and vi) limited access to microcredit facilities. With the Committee on World Food Security’s endorsement of the recommendations presented in the High Level Panel of Experts Report on Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition in late 2017 – which include promoting multifunctional landscapes, integrated food-forestry systems, and research on associated linkages, among other things – forests and trees are expected to play a greater role in future land-use decisions and related policies. This paper provides an overview of these linkages in the context of the Miombo woodlands, in the hope that future land use, policy decisions and financial investments are shaped to support the contributions of forests and trees to the health and livelihoods of communities in the ecoregion. The following key messages were formulated: • Forests and trees, if managed sustainably, are an important source of resilience for rural people in the Miombo woodlands, supporting households to absorb and recover from climatic or economic calamities and contributing to resolving the underlying causes of food insecurity, undernutrition and poverty by providing nutritious edible products and woodfuel for cooking in addition to conserving biodiversity and water resources, buffering extreme weather conditions and preventing land degradation and desertification. • Current data bases referring to the value of the Miombo must be analysed and used as evidence to improve policy-making. • Miombo woodlands may be dominant (spatially), but they have not been addressed as a single unit but as part of the region’s forests. They form part of the overall forestry strategies and no specific mention in the conventions does not suggest that their importance is underplayed. • The management of Miombo will require some changes in management structures, especially in providing benefits emerging from trade in forest products to local managers. • Local forest managers should play a greater role in allocating resources for feedstock for charcoal production.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Agricultural Censuses and Gender
    Lessons learned in Africa
    2005
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    This document highlights lessons learned in Africa with regard to the integration of gender concerns into agricultural censuses and provides recommendations on how to further improve the integration of these concerns into agricultural data collection systems. Past policies for agricultural development often focused on production grow th w hile overlooking the importance of human resources, as well as the social and w elfare aspects of agricultural development. By the late 1980s this st arted changing as more evidence became available of the importance of human capital to sustainable agricultural development. Moreover, users and producers of agricultural statistics increasingly noted that agricultural statistics all too often did not reflect the actual roles and responsibilities of women in agricultural production. This led to a first increase in demand for the production of accurate and up-to-date socio-economic and gender-disaggregated data through agricultural cens uses and surveys for the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agricultural development policies and programmes geared tow ards the sustainable development of the agricultural sector.

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