Working Group Food and Water Security

Mission Statement

The overarching objective of the “food and water security” IALE working group is to determine the state of current knowledge in this area as it relates to landscape scale drivers, couplings, and dynamics across ecological and social dimensions.  We ultimately would like to document the state of our current knowledge and to identify gaps that can be addressed by landscape ecologist working across a variety of disciplines, and to forge new partnerships with NGOs and others that are influential in the area of policy and funding.

Food insecurity has changed dramatically over the last few decades.  Through the end of the last century and then into the 2010s, the world experienced declines in the percentage of the global population experiencing either severe food insecurity or undernourishment was reversed – today, over 820 million people, almost 1 in 9, do not get enough to eat, an increase of nearly 50 million in just over the last 4 years.  Nearly one third of the population in East Africa are considered as possessing a PoU (prevalence of undernourishment) level of nutrition (i.e., lack the food necessary to provide dietary energy levels to live an active, healthy, normal life).  A UN 2030 Agenda, endorsed by many other organizations and nearly all nations, set a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Zero Hunger – SDG 2.  Challenges to reaching this ambitious goal are many, including the lack of available land, declining biodiversity, climate change, shortages of potable water, soil degradation, and economic inequities.

Landscape ecologists have the opportunity to address these challenges and to help society meet a SDG 2 - Zero Hunger . To do this, it will require the community to work across many disciplines and organizations to conduct the necessary research, knowledge synthesis, research and policy needs that are critical to sustainable landscapes so that the food and water needs of society can be met.

Goals

The goals of our Food and Water Security IALE Working Group are to:

1. Determine the current state of knowledge of food and water security in developing countries that relate to socioecological dynamics, drivers and outcomes at landscape scales
2. Identify areas of critical need for new research and policy to achieve a Zero Hunger goal
3. Develop and maintain bridges to policy and funding organizations whose mission it is to reduce hunger at local to global scales