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There are innumerable reasons to protect forests. Some of them are to do with the fact that local populations depend on forest produce for nutrition.
Communities living in the central part of the country, for instance, use flowers of the flame of the forest tree to prepare a cooling beverage that helps them during the summer months. In the hills of Uttarakhand, fronds of a fern are collected for preparing a stir fried sabji. In the arid regions of Rajasthan, beans of the khejadi trees provide the much needed proteins. In southern India, tamarind trees provide a tang to the food along with a shot of Vitamin C.
Forests can provide food, add diversity to our diets and keep us healthy. On this year's International Day of Forests, the world is celebrating the variety of foods that these vast expanse of trees provide.
It is estimated that more than five billion people around the world use forest and non-timber forest products as food and medicine and for eking out a livelihood. These minor forest products include leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, fungi and wild meat.
These are the foods that our ancestors ate and even now, they are an important part of diets of people living near forests. Protecting the trees is important considering that forests are more resilient to climate change than agricultural fields and could help us survive extreme weather events.
The International Day of Forests raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests. It was first declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012. Each year, the theme is chosen by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, a voluntary inter-agency partnership of 16 international organisations, institutions and secretariats.
The theme, forests and food, resonates with the overall mandate to ensure that all types of forests and forest landscapes are sustainably managed, their value recognised, their potential unlocked and the Global Forest Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals and other global forest-related goals, targets and commitments are achieved by 2030.
This includes Target 10 of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity. This target mandates that biodiversity and sustainability is enhanced in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry. For this, it is advised that by 2030, there should be a substantial increase in the application of biodiversity friendly practices in these production systems while ensuring food security.
Forests have many other functions. They provide fuel, support soil fertility, habitats for biodiversity, including pollinators that help agriculture. They also contribute to climate change mitigation by storing carbon. More than 85 per cent of fresh supply to major cities in the world is sourced from forests.
Apart from subsistence, forests provide up to 20 per cent of family income in rural areas for people living around forests.
But these ecosystems are in danger. Globally, around 10 million hectares are lost annually due to deforestation and another 70 million hectares are affected by fires.
In India, the latest State of Forest Report released in December 2024 suggests that the country’s forest and tree cover has increased — going up to 715,343 square kilometres in 2023 from 698,712 sq km in 2013.
There is an additional 112,014 square kilometres under tree cover. With this, as much as 25.17 per cent of the nation’s total land area is under forests. However, analysis of the data suggests that this increase is due to an increase in plantations. As these plantations are generally for wood, they fail to provide food. Access to much of this forest is limited.
This is a big loss for a country like India, which holds immense knowledge about forest foods. They depend on the forest not only for food but also for medicine. With foods at stake, protecting the forest is imperative.