Year of publication 2020

Forests provide goods and services, employment and income to perhaps 2.5 billion people worldwide. Recognition of the importance of forests for food security and nutrition has significantly increased in recent years. Since the first International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition in 2013, FAO has made efforts to promote cross-sectoral collaboration to achieve sustainable forestry, agriculture and food security and nutrition simultaneously. Such efforts prompted the endorsement of policy recommendations on sustainable forestry for food security and nutrition at the forty-fourth session of the Committee on World Food Security in October 2017. This publication goes one step forward by introducing health into the recommendations on the linkages between forests, nutrition and food security. Its aim is to expand cross-sectoral collaboration to a new set of stakeholders who are vital to unlocking the full potential of forests for contributing to greater human well-being. Nutrition and health are intrinsically connected: Good nutrition cannot be achieved without good health and vice versa. Yet forests also provide a wide range of benefits to human health and well-being beyond those generally addressed in connection with the food security and nutrition framework.