Forests and Nutrition in IndonesiaAmy Ickowitz, Dominic Rowland, Bronwen Powell,

Mohammad Salim, Terry Sunderland SCB Asia

Melaka, August 2014

• Prevalence of stunting in children under 5: • 29% of Indonesian households have a caloric intake

below RDA• About 30% of Indonesians are stunted

• Poor dietary quality• About 40% of Indonesians suffer from one or more

micronutrient deficiencies , the most common : • iron, vitamin A, zinc and iodine

• The average Indonesian consumes 102 kg of rice per year with very low quantities of vegetables, fruits and animal source foods (BPS 2008)

Food Security and Nutrition in Indonesia

• Discussions on forests vs. food security• Implicitly about calories

• But if focus is on dietary quality…• consumption of micronutrient-rich foods (fruits & veg and

animal source foods)

• Then it is possible that forests actually make a contribution to food security

Forests and Food Security

Why might forests and tree-filled landscapes be important for dietary quality?

Collection of nutritious NTFPs Farming mosaics may promote

more diverse diets Agro-forestry and fruit production Ecosystem services of forests for

agriculture Availability of fuel wood May provide ‘back up’ foods for

lean season

Several papers discuss some of these plausible links (Colfer et al., 2005; Vinceti et al., 2008; Arnold et al., 2011), but little empirical evidence

Johnson et al. (2013) finds that net forest loss associated with less dietary diversity in Malawi

Recent paper by CIFOR food security team finds that there is a positive relationship between tree cover and child dietary diversity in a sample of 21 countries in Africa

Is there evidence?

• Children living near forests in Indonesia have better quality diets than children living in other rural areas because

• They have access to micronutrient-rich forest foods (wild fruits, vegetables, bushmeat)

• More likely to practice shifting cultivation and/or agroforestry which more likely to offer greater variety of foods

Hypothesis

• Also likely to be income poor and have less market access• So possible that others can afford to buy more,

nutritious foods in markets• Are micronutrient-rich foods readily available in

rural markets?• Can the relatively poor afford them?• Do they choose to buy them?

But…

We merge• Indonesian Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data from

2003 • Frequency child ate from various food groups in the last 7

dayswith• GLCF MODIS data (250 m resolution) on percentage tree

cover & MOF data on vegetation classes• Along with several other variables from various data sets

• We run several regressions to see if there is a statistically significant relationship between frequency of consumption of various foods and tree cover

Testing the hypothesis

• Number of times in the last 7 days child (between 1 and r5 years old) ate:

• Vitamin A rich fruits• Vitamin A rich vegetables• Green leafy vegetables• Other fruits and vegetables• Animal Source Foods• Legumes • Dairy

• We restrict sample to rural areas and only one observation per mother

Dependent Variables

Independent Variables% Tree CoverChild characteristics

Age Age squared Currently breastfeeding sex

Household Characteristics Wealth index Mother’s education Father’s education Muslim

Community Characteristics % 5km band overlapping with palm oil

concession Distance to coast Distance to city Aridity Elevation

Sample: about 3300 children between ages 6 and 59 months in 25 provinces across Indonesia

Main Results Natural Forest: Statistically significant positive relationship between area of community in natural forest and frequency of consumption of:• Animal Source Foods

Area with medium tree density positively associated with frequency of consumption of:

• Vitamin A rich fruit• Green vegetables• ‘other’ fruits and veg• Animal source foods

Areas with timber plantations positively associated with frequency of consumption of:

• Vitamin A rich fruit• Orange veg• Other fruits and veg• legumes

Other Results

There is no statistically significant association between areas under agricultural plantation and consumption of micronutrient rich foods

Another interesting result

Children in areas with more natural forest consume animals source foods more frequently

Children living in areas with more timber plantations consumed fruits, vegetables, and legumes more frequently

Children living in areas with more land area in medium-tree cover class characteristic of swidden agriculture and agroforestry appear to have the most micronutrient-rich diets;

Children living in areas with more area in agricultural plantation did not have any nutritional advantage

Conclusions

We have found preliminary support for the hypothesis that forests and tree-filled landscapes are important for nutrition in Indonesia

We need more detailed and fine-grained data to help us understand how and why children in areas with more tree cover in Indonesia consume fruits and animal source foods more frequently

• But we think we have enough evidence to say that discussions of forests vs. food security need to become more nuanced and consider dietary quality

Conclusions

THINKING beyond the canopy

Thank you!