New Security Beat

Fish is the most widely traded food in the world and more nutritious than many commonly consumed foods. However, due to inadequate management of fisheries – global fish is declining and causing nutrient deficiencies. Why are fisheries overlooked? Barbara Best @USAID answers now.

Here is the report Barbara Best highlights - "The Role of Wild-Caught Fisheries in African Development" https://rmportal.net/biodiversityconservation-gateway/what-we-do/conservation-development/food-security/the-role-of-wild-caught-fisheries-in-african-development/view …

Key takeaways: - In Africa, 93% of people in the fish sector are employed in #wildfisheries, 7% in #aquaculture - Women make up about 50% of fish industry workers, with 90% engaged in post-harvest activities - West African small-scale #fisheries employ about 1.7 million people

We need to be looking at broader food systems as part of the environmental framework. Wild-caught #fisheries are too big to ignore and better integration into project management is needed. - Barbara Best former Senior Coastal Resource Management and Policy Specialist @USAID

Amy Ickowitz, Team Leader for Sustainable Landscapes & Livelihoods @CIFOR outlines preliminary results from a recent study on direct contributions of forests to diets in #Zambia

Survey results of the study showed that only 58% of women consumed any fruit in the week preceding the survey; just 11% had a fruit an average of at least once a day; For the 42% of women consuming any fruit, wild fruit was consumed more than 2x as frequently as domestic fruit

Wild fruits in #Zambia cannot go unnoticed. They comprise 68% of fruit consumed by women in 7 day period. Over a one-year period, on average, they contributed 25% of the recommended daily intake of fruits- Amy Ickowitz @CIFOR

Forests provide 1/3 of people's recommended intake of food. If we cut that down, where are people's food going to come from? - Amy Ickowitz @CIFOR

The share of the environmental burden of disease is disproportionately born by people in the developing world. @TaylorHRicketts @UVMVermont @GundInstitute explores the relationships between global change and human #health

One study @TaylorHRicketts @UVMVermont @GundInstitute highlights examined how watershed conditions affect downstream diarrheal disease among children. 800,000 kids in the study across 49 countries. Results show: upstream tree cover and human activity impact childhood diarrhea

Forests do impact household diet diversity - a study found an increase in diet diversity for those who live near forests vs. those who live farther away.

Key takeaways from @TaylorHRicketts @UVMVermont @GundInstitute: - Forests & #conservation affect children’s health - Signal strongest for most vulnerable kids (Rural & poor households depend more directly on #nature) - Nature investments can be #publichealth investments

Q&A is starting soon! Send your questions for our panelists to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org.

"This crisis has illustrated just how fragile our food systems are." - Shawn Baker, Chief Nutritionist @USAID on the importance of #biodiversity #conservation with outcomes from and approaches to the #COVID19 pandemic.

Key themes of today's discussion: Fragility and #resilience, making the invisible visible, #foodsecurity, the importance of #indigenous knowledge, vulnerability and equity, and evidence-based trade-offs