ABSTRACT

Advancing food security will require improving access to food, food safety, nutritional adequacy, and sustainability, as well as increasing productivity. This chapter addresses the potential contribution of ecosystem services to several of these dimensions of food security. The concept of food security encompasses many dimensions, including availability of food, access to food, adequacy in terms of nutrition and food safety, and acceptability according to cultural norms. Lack of access to food is a fundamental impediment to food security that often results from poverty. Disaggregating the beneficiaries of ecosystem services can aid in evaluating the potential contributions of ecosystem services to food security. Understanding access mechanisms for particular ecosystem services is essential for evaluating the potential contribution to food security, whether considering the provision of wild foods or food provisioning from agriculture. Ecosystem services can also play a significant role in the nutritional quality of human diets through the provision of micronutrient-rich foods.