This report aims at providing an evidence-based, comprehensive analysis of the relationships between forestry and FSN. It clarifies the links between sustainable forestry and FSN. It considers how sustainable forestry can address competing demands and contribute to FSN in the long term.

This report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) analyzes the diverse, direct and indirect, contributions of forests and trees to food and nutrition security (FNS). Forests contribute to FNS through four main channels: direct provision of food; provision of energy, especially for cooking; income generation and employment; and provision of ecosystem services that are essential for FNS. Importantly, contributions of forests and trees to FNS depend upon numerous interactions inside complex environmental, economic and social systems that are often built and sustained with traditional and indigenous knowledge. Therefore, sustainable forest management for FNS has pay attention to and integrate the multiple uses of forests and trees, as well as the diverging and sometimes conflicting interests, needs and rights of different stakeholders, with specific attention to more vulnerable and marginalized groups. Sustainable forest management requires the establishment of intersectorial governance mechanisms at different scales that: enable the full and effective participation of concerned stakeholders, particularly of forest-dependent indigenous peoples and local communities; articulate different functions of forests and trees; consider short- and long-term objectives; and recognize and reduce conflicts between stakeholders. The realization of the right to adequate food of local communities, forest-dependent communities and indigenous peoples requires ensuring their land and forest use rights.