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130 | Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Report
Table 3-3. continued.
Variable |
Current situation |
Source |
Food security |
During 1979-2000, daily consumption increased about 10 kcal per capita in Peru, |
Morón et al., |
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Proportion of undernourished population. Greater than 35%: Haiti (improving); |
RLC-FAO, 2006 |
Food sustainability |
The most serious environmental problems in LAC are: land and forest degradation, deforestation, losses of habitat and biodiversity, pollution/contamination of freshwater sources, marine coasts and the atmosphere. The amount of global rainfall is enough, but it is unevenly distributed; agriculture is strongly dependent on irrigation in many areas; there has been a marked increase in livestock production and many areas are under water stress. |
CEPAL, 2005b |
| There has been a striking increment in both crop and livestock production. The latter exerts a strong pressure on forest lands, even when the rate of increase in lands under agriculture has decreased. There is a noticeable trend towards soil degradation and contamination because of the intensive use of agri-chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides, salinization and deforestation. Misuse has led to soil degradation in arid, semiarid, subhumid, and dry regions. In the 1990s important advances were made in LAC towards institutionbuilding for environmental management, the creation of a legal framework and specific legislation directed to natural resources and the limitation of polluting/ contaminant emissions, and the implementation of tools like environmental impact assessments. Despite differences among countries, total environmental expenses (i.e., public and private) did not go beyond 1% of GDP, and rarely beyond 3% of total public expenses. |
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| The degree of deforestation is very large. Deforestation is mainly due to the conversion of forested lands to other uses, like agriculture, livestock production, urban expansion, road and railway construction, and mining. Other causes of deforestation, which are very important in some areas but are much less widespread than the ones referred to above are the harvest of firewood for either household or industrial use and the intensive exploitation of some particular tree species. Fires may also result in large forest losses. |
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| Conventional silvicultural approaches to forest management and use that do not take into account the complexity of the forest ecosystem, its multiple environmental services and its benefits for the communities inhabiting them still are the preferred ones in LAC. Nevertheless there currently is a trend in most of the countries in the region to prepare national forestry plans with the idea contributing to the sustainable development of a country. |
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| Eight countries in the region are classed as mega-diverse: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru y the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The conservation of biodiversity is considered to be extremely important agriculture and food security. |
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| A wide variety of plants and animals make the basis of agricultural biodiversity. However, just 14 mammal and avian species altogether make up 90% of the food from animal sources people eat. And only four plant species—wheat, corn, rice and potato—provide half of the energy humankind gets from plants. Latin America is the origin of many crops species relevant for human nutrition, like corn, beans, potato, sweet potato, tomato, cacao, cassava, peanuts and pineapple. |
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