Wild Foods - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 488

Overall, the challenge of feeding a growing world population, if it does not focus on
sustainable intensification (Royal Society 2009), will further threaten naturally biodi-
verse landscapes. These landscapes host species that are important for ensuring dietary
diversity and associated nutritional security. This calls for a biodiversity-focused strat-
egy in food, public health, and poverty alleviation policies (Johns and Sthapit 2004).
Unsustainable Harvesting
Sixteen of the world's biodiversity hotspots correspond with areas of malnutrition and
hunger, placing pressure on biodiversity for food provision (Treweek et al. 2006). In
these locations, unsustainable harvests have led to declines in wild food species.
The illegal use of and trade in bushmeat is well documented. In the long-term, over-
harvesting will have a negative impact on wild food availability, and thus on nutritional
security for those communities who rely on bushmeat for protein. An important driver
is the widespread availability of firearms (Jaarsveld et al. 2005). Nevertheless, despite the
threat to wildlife, Cowlishaw et al. (2005) found some evidence of sustainable harvesting
after the extinction (through historical hunting) of key species. After vulnerable species
had been depleted, robust species (fast reproducers) were then harvested and traded at
sustainable levels. Management policies might therefore benefit from according stricter
protection to key species but allowing robust ones to continue being traded sustainably.
Where species have traditionally been harvested sustainably, the commercializa-
tion of species can result in overharvesting (Kala 2009). Brashares et al. (2004) found
links between unsustainable harvesting of bushmeat and fish stocks in Africa: years of
poor fish catches coincided with increased hunting over a thirty-year period. Policies
to restrict unsustainable exploitation of landscapes have often sought to restrict local
users. Yet those who dwell on the land depend vitally on access to the resources it pro-
vides. Restricting access may therefore have negative implications for food security
and livelihoods, and can worsen income inequalities (Kamanga et al. 2009).
Deepening Poverty, HIV/AIDS
and Conflict
In Africa, climate-induced vulnerabilities combined with HIV/AIDS have produced
such significant declines in food security that they have spurred new thinking on the
origins of famine (e.g., new variant famine (NVF) hypothesis; de Waal and Whiteside
2003). A Hlanze et al. (2005) state, “increasingly it is becoming difficult to separate the
food security impact of drought from that of HIV/AIDS. The two work in tandem to
cause poor harvests and reduced incomes.” For households afflicted by HIV/AIDS,