THE ROLE OF ECOSYSTEM

SERVICES ON NUTRITION
IN THE AMAZON
 The Amazon is home to the largest area of ​tropical rain
forest left on our planet. Almost twice the size of India,
these forests play a vital role in regulating the global
climate and providing other services such as water
purification and carbon sequestration.
 33 million people live in
the Amazon and some 420
indigenous communities
depend directly on its
resources to meet their
water and food needs, as
well as for their
livelihoods. These
livelihoods and lifestyles
are intrinsically related to
the preservation of forests
and the conservation of
their biodiversity. The
Amazon is home to more
than half of the terrestrial
species of animals, plants
and insects.
 The project for the Integration of Protected Areas of the Amazon
(IAPA), led by FAO, supports the community of park directors in
Latin America and the Caribbean of protected areas of the Amazon
(RedParques) and guarantees effective supervision and
collaboration between these areas. By strengthening the
governance process, the IAPA project helps protect local and
indigenous communities and their livelihoods, preserving the
biodiversity of the Amazon biome and supporting the management
of one of the most important ecosystems in the world.
 n this regard, the project ‘Managing ecosystem services for food
security and the nutritional health of the rural poor at the forest-
agricultural interface’, also called ASSETS, was established with
the aim to document the relations between ecosystem services,
food security and the nutritional health of local communities
living in the forest-agriculture interface. The project analyses
ecosystem services through the lens of FAO’s four pillars of food
security: availability, access, utilization and stability, along a
gradient of deforestation.
 There is almost an absence of deforestation in the Lower
Caqueta where indigenous communities from various ethnic
groups depend, to a major extent, on forest resources to satisfy
their basic needs. In this region, Yucuna, Tanimuca, Cubeo,
Miraña and Macuna families practice hunting, gathering, fishing
and slash-and-burn agriculture. Their diet is composed by
cassava with fish (or wild animals) and they consume a wide
diversity of wild and domesticated fruits. They build their houses
and craft diverse utensils, such as baskets and brooms, using
forest plant resources. Conversely, although Ucayali is also part
of the Amazon basin, it presents an alarming rate of on-going
deforestation as observed in satellite images (i.e. by Terra-i) and
reflected in adaptive livelihood strategies of mestizo and
indigenous (Shipibo-Conibo) communities. Despite the fact that
Pucallpa has suffered a high and sustained pressure on its
forests during the past decades (due to e.g. illegal logging, palm
oil and livestock expansion), there are still major forest
resources, playing a crucial role for local livelihoods and disaster
risk reduction, which surely need to be conserved. At the same
time, communities in Ucayali present diverse levels of
dependency on forest-related ecosystem services, for instance,
varying with the access to markets and forests.
investigating the three major research themes:

 Drivers, pressures and linkages between food security,

nutritional health and ecosystem services;
 Crises and tipping points involving past, present and
future interactions between food insecurity and
ecosystem services at the forest-agriculture interface;
 and the science-policy interface.
 This project is conducted by an international consortium
including the University of Southampton, the
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT),
Conservation International, the Basque Center for
Climate Change and the University of Malawi Chancellor
College. ASSETS is part of the ESPA initiative funded by
DFID, NERC and ESRC from the UK; and belongs to the
CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and
Ecosystems.
making livelihoods sustainable
and protecting their resources are
crucial to survival.
No matter where we live on the
planet, the Amazon benefits us in
multiple ways: it removes carbon
dioxide from the air and purifies
our water. They are services that
we take for granted, but without
which our world would change.
What happens in the Amazon
affects us all.
“The Amazon is the lung of the
world; It is a very important part
due to all the services it offers to
the different countries of the
world ”, emphasizes Andrea
Barrero, Official of the National
Parks of Colombia.
LAURIN DAYANA DAZA

- ARTE DRAMATICO
- ENGLISH COMPREHENSION 2
- VIRTUAL MODALITY
- UNIT 1