Life on the Rainforest Edge: Food Security in the Agricultural-Forest Frontier of Cross River State, Nigeria

Sagan Friant,Nzube M Ifebueme,Jessica M Rothman,Clement B I Alawa,Wilfred A Ayambem,Alobi O Alobi,David A Ogar,Oshama M Otukpa,Jerry K Jacka,Tony L Goldberg

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2019.00113

Abstract

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the importance of forests and wild animal-based foods for diets within tropical environments. However, deforestation and associated land-use changes can have competing effects on nutrition and food security as communities reorient from wild food use and subsistence-based agriculture to import/export markets. This research examines dietary differences and associated changes in food security during intermediate stages of deforestation and market integration in the agriculture-forest frontier of Cross River State, Nigeria. We used participant responses to mixed-methods interviews (n=528) in six communities to measure individual dietary diversity, household food access, and short-term nutritional status, with specific attention to animal-based foods and the cultural and economic values attached to them, in two interior forest (n=177) and four forest-edge (n=351) communities. Multivariate analysis of dietary compositions revealed differences in food categories and types of meat consumed between forest environments. People in forest-edge communities reported consuming less bushmeat and dark green leafy vegetables, and more pulses, domestic meat, fish, eggs, dairy, other vegetables, sweets, condiments, and non-red palm oil compared to interior forest communities. Bushmeat was highly preferred and had more economic value than other animal-based foods, regardless of location. Forest-edge communities had fewer households involved in bushmeat related activities, and fewer hunters per household. However, traders in forest-edge communities sold a larger proportion of meat to people outside of the community than did traders in interior forest communities. Measures of nutrition and food security, but not wealth, improved in relation to dietary patterns in forest-edge communities compared to interior forest communities. Our results may reflect a “best of both worlds” scenario during the intermediate stages of deforestation and agricultural expansion near forested areas, where people have access to forest resources, increased ability to capitalize on forest goods, and access to market goods as they become integrated into market economies. Understanding the dietary consequences of environmental change is important, as food-related experiences may shape the trajectories of livelihood practices and landscape changes in tropical forests of biodiversity significance.

Highlights

We examine the effects of tropical deforestation and land use change on diets and food security in an agriculturalforest frontier in West Africa
Our comparison of interior and forest-edge diets highlight the effects of tropical land use changes on local food systems, with implications for understanding the changes occurring at intermediate stages of ecological and dietary transitions at the agricultural-forest frontier
These data highlight the heterogeneity in the effect of tropical land use change in diets overtime, suggesting that in the intermittent stages of tropical deforestation, communities experience the best of two worlds—the agricultural and forest frontier

Summary

Introduction

Food provisioning is an important ecosystem service of forests, contributing to improved dietary diversity, nutrition, and food security in rural areas (Powell et al, 2011; Johnson et al, 2013; Vinceti et al, 2013; Ickowitz et al, 2014; Vira et al, 2015; Galway et al, 2018; Rasolofoson et al, 2018). Agricultural expansion is the leading cause of tropical deforestation, altering local ecologies and contributing to biodiversity losses (Geist and Lambin, 2002; van Vliet et al, 2012). Conservation policies aimed, in part, at reducing agricultural expansion and deforestation often restrict use of remnant forests thereby limiting access to wild foods and new agricultural land (Ribot et al, 2006; Sandbrook et al, 2010). Limited access to land from agricultural expansion and/or conservation policies further alters food systems by encouraging intensive agriculture when space is limited and forest clearing is prohibited (van Vliet et al, 2012). Overall, declining diversity in agricultural production is associated with lower household and individual dietary diversity (Jones, 2017)

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