Biodiversity, nutrition and health. Emile Frison Director General Bioversity International Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity 2007

Transcription

1 Biodiversity, nutrition and health Emile Frison Director General Bioversity International Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity 2007

2 Biodiversity and MDGs Hunger Incomes Child and maternal health Sustainability

3 Benefits of Biodiversity Conventional view As a source of traits for crop and livestock improvement Unconventional, but gaining ground As a source of resilience and stability against biotic and abiotic threats As a source of increased income and improved livelihoods

4 Biggest Benefit: better nutrition Hidden hunger: missing micronutrients At least 2 million worldwide Mostly women and children Double burden: diseases of affluence Type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancers

5 Dietary Simplification (1) Energy from Fats and Oils Senegal 1963: 8% 1998: 20%

6 Dietary Simplification (2) Reduced access to traditional and indigenous foods Rural pressures Backward

7 Plenty of 1st world evidence USA decreased risk of mortality Italy decline in gastric cancer rate Sweden a healthy diet increases longevity Sweden decreased risk of colorectal cancer

8 Developing countries: not so much Kenya Dietary diversity strongly and consistently correlated with anthropometric status Mali Food Variety (no. of food items) and Dietary Diversity (no. of food groups) correlated with nutritional adequacy

9 Diversity and child growth Height-for-age terciles against dietary diversity. Adjusting for other factors, there is a significant effect in seven of the 11 countries studied. Arimond & Ruel 2004

10 Dietary diversity may indeed reflect diet quality.

11 Diversity of Diet Diverse diet protects Indigenous/traditional species/varieties offer nutritional advantages Promote local agricultural biodiversity for improved diets and health

12 Kenya Traditional leafy vegetables Partnered with Family Concern (NGO) and Uchumi Supermarkets Seed supply and agronomy Training for cleaner, highquality produce Leaflets to educate shoppers Sales increase 1100% in two years

13 Other examples India: small millets Bolivia: Andean grains

14 African leafy vegetables Amaranth Cleome Nightshade Cabbage Per 100 gm (leaf) Iron mg Calcium mg ß carotene ųg

15 Gaps and Bottlenecks Gaps in large scale evidence Nutrition data Impact on malnutrition and health Bottlenecks Policy-makers for health, agricultural development and finance

16 Impact on Nutrition and Health Need to build strong scientific evidence base at a sufficient scale to convince the major development actors

17 Food-based approach Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes in very poor rural Mozambique Two year study OFSP area per family increased tenfold Children much more likely to eat OFSP Vitamin A intake eight times higher 15% decrease in Vitamin A Deficiency

18 Bottlenecks Policy makers do not yet take the potential contributions of agricultural biodiversity seriously enough Too much emphasis on fortification and supplementation? Agricultural biodiversity delivers multiple benefits so require cross sector dialogue.

19 West Africa meeting Bioversity International and the West Africa Health Organization Cross-sectoral: health, agriculture, finance Action plans

20 Potential for positive feedback Better evidence of benefits Greater uptake in policies

21 Invest now in diversity for diets Tackling malnutrition No. 2 for the Copenhagen Consensus [T]he importance of alleviating malnutrition and hunger, especially among children, cannot be overestimated. Food-based approach is the only sustainable approach Time to integrate agricultural biodiversity

22 Time for action COP 8 of CBD adopted cross cutting initiative on Biodiversity for food and nutrition and requested Bioversity International to lead the initiative together with FAO and WHO Must mobilize the resources for its implementation

23 Thank you