Food security in a perfect storm: using the ecosystem services framework to increase understanding

Achieving food security in a 'perfect storm' scenario is a grand challenge for society. Climate change and an expanding global population act in concert to make global food security even more complex and demanding. As achieving food security and the millennium development goal (MDG) to era...

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Published inPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences Vol. 369; no. 1639; pp. 1 - 13
Main Authors Poppy, G. M., Chiotha, S., Eigenbrod, F., Harvey, C. A., Honzák, M., Hudson, M. D., Jarvis, A., Madise, N. J., Schreckenberg, K., Shackleton, C. M., Villa, F., Dawson, T. P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Royal Society 05.04.2014
Subjects
Agroecosystems
Ecological sustainability
Ecosystem services
Food
Food access
Food availability
Food security
Provisioning ecosystem services
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable food systems
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Summary:Achieving food security in a 'perfect storm' scenario is a grand challenge for society. Climate change and an expanding global population act in concert to make global food security even more complex and demanding. As achieving food security and the millennium development goal (MDG) to eradicate hunger influences the attainment of other MDGs, it is imperative that we offer solutions which are complementary and do not oppose one another. Sustainable intensification of agriculture has been proposed as a way to address hunger while also minimizing further environmental impact. However, the desire to raise productivity and yields has historically led to a degraded environment, reduced biodiversity and a reduction in ecosystem services (ES), with the greatest impacts affecting the poor. This paper proposes that the ES framework coupled with a policy response framework, for example Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR), can allow food security to be delivered alongside healthy ecosystems, which provide many other valuable services to humankind. Too often, agro-ecosystems have been considered as separate from other natural ecosystems and insufficient attention has been paid to the way in which services can flow to and from the agro-ecosystem to surrounding ecosystems. Highlighting recent research in a large multi-disciplinary project (ASSETS), we illustrate the ES approach to food security using a case study from the Zomba district of Malawi.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2012.0288