Policy, legal and institutional frameworks

©Syahrol RizalThe first global conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition recognized that food security is grounded in diversity – in terms of biota, landscapes, cultures, diets, production units and management, and that forests and trees are critical for maintaining that diversity and should be better integrated with strategies for food security and nutrition.

Appropriate policies are needed to:

• Provide secure land and forest tenure and equitable access to resources by applying the principles outlined in the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.
• Develop mechanisms for coordination across the agricultural, forestry, livestock, fisheries, energy, mining and other relevant sectors to ensure stronger coherence of food security and nutrition interventions and better policy alignment.
• Promote policies that increase access by smallholders to credit, technology, extension services and insurance, as well as to markets for their forest and tree products and ecosystem services.
• Achieve gender equality in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of food-security, nutrition and poverty-alleviation policies and investment strategies.
• Strengthen mechanisms for the collection and timely dissemination of data on the contribution of forests and trees to food security and nutrition for use in policy-making.