Trees and Child Nutrition in Africa Amy Ickowitz , Bronwen Powell, Terry Sunderland

Tree Diversity Day COP 11 Hyderabad

Context for Study: Forests vs. Food?

§ Maybe…  forests  themselves  are  important  for  nutri&on?  

§ Theore6cal  Rela6onship:    § Why  might  forests  and  nutri6on  be  nega6vely  related  ?  §  Income  Link      

§ Why  might  forests  and  nutri6on  be  posi6vely  related  ?  § Market  Imperfec&ons  

 

   

 

Objec&ve:  use  na6onally  rep.  data  from  many  countries  in  Africa  to  empirically  examine  rela6onship  between  tree  cover  and  child  nutri6on  

 Method:  Integrate  nutri6on  data  from  Demographic  

Health  Surveys  from  21  countries  in  Africa  with  GIS  informa6on  on  %  tree  cover  (ISCGM)  to  inves6gate  whether  there  is  a  ss  rela6onship  between  measures  of  child  nutri6on  and  tree  cover  

 

The Study

Sample: Almost 140,000 children between ages 13 and 59 months in about 9,400 communities

(21 countries )

Dietary  Diversity  Score:    •  A  diverse  diet  is  more  likely  to  contain  adequate  amounts  of  all  

essen6al  nutrients    •  linked  to  growth  of  children  and  morbidity  and  mortality      Fruit  and  Vegetable  Consump&on:  •  Fruits  and  vegetables  are  important  sources  of  vitamin  A,  vitamin  

C,  folate,  and  phytochemicals  •  The  WHO  ranks  inadequate  consump6on  of  fruits  and  vegetables  

as  one  of  the  top  ten  global  health  problems  Animal  Source  Foods  •  Protein  •  sources  of  highly  bio-­‐available  iron,  zinc,  vitamin  A  and  vitamin  

B12  

Nutritional Measures

3  Dependent  Variables:      Dietary  Diversity  Score;  fruit  and  veg  consn;  ASF  consn  

Independent  Variables:  •  %  Tree  Cover  and  %  Tree  Cover2  •  Mother’s  educa6on  •  Father’s  educa6on  •  Wealth  Index  •  Rural  Dummy  •  Child  age  &    age2    &  age3  •  Distance  to  Rd  •  Distance  to  closest  city  of  10,000  •  Aridity  Index  •  Boy  dummy  •  Month  of  interview  •  Country  dummy  

Regressions

•  There  is  a  sta6s6cally  significant  non-­‐linear  rela6onship  between  %  tree  cover  and  preferred  DDS  measure  peaking  at  61%  

 

Result: DDS

0  

0.01  

0.02  

0.03  

0.04  

0.05  

0.06  

0.07  

0   20   40   60   80   100  

Dietary  Diversity  Score  &  Tree  Cover  

Dietary  Diversity  

Note:  94%  of  sample  has  less  than  61%  tree  

cover  

•  There  is  a  ss  non-­‐linear  rela6onship  between  forest  cover  and  fruit  and  veggie  consn  which  peaks  at  about  48%  tree  cover  

Result: Fruits and Veggies

0  

0.02  

0.04  

0.06  

0.08  

0.1  

0.12  

0.14  

0.16  

0.18  

0   20   40   60   80   100  

Fruit  &  Veg  Consn  

Fruit  &  Veg  Consn  

Note:    88%  of  sample  has  less  than  48%  tree  

cover  

There  is  no  ss  rela&onship  between  tree  cover  and  Animal  Source  Food  consump6on    

 

Result: ASF

Thank You!

•  Dietary  Diversity  Score  :  We  construct  three  different  scores  to  match  the  literature….our  preferred  measure  includes:  

•  grains,  tubers,  green  vegetables,  legumes,  orange  vegetables,  vitamin-­‐A  rich  fruits,  other  fruits  and  vegetables,  dairy,  animal  source  foods  (meat,  fish,  eggs,  and  snails),  and  fats  

 

•  Consump6on  of  Two  Key  Individual  food  groups:    Fruits  and  veggies  and  Animal  source  foods    

 

Nutritional Indicators Used

Some  interes6ng  ques6ons  for  future  research:    •  Are  people  ea6ng  nutri6ous  NTFPs?    •  Are  people  growing  these  foods…so  is  this  ‘agroforestry’  that  we  are  picking  up?  

•  Is  it  the  agr.  crops  that  are  grown  in    forested  regions  are  more  nutri6ous?  

Moving beyond the results:

Our study does not explain what drives these relationships