The FORESTDIET Project

The overall aim of FORESTDIET was to uncover how forests support people’s dietary quality across Africa. Below, you can read a few highlights from the project.

Highlights from FORESTDIET

Rasmus Skov Olesen defended his PhD in 2024. He was able to show how forests in Tanzania contribute important micronutrients, such as vitamin A, iron, and zinc to local people’s diets. Based on his PhD project, he was selected as a finalist for the national Danish PhD Cup.  

Sample publications

As part of FORESTDIET, Emilie Vansant successfully defended her PhD in 2023. The findings bring to light how trees on farm in Malawi contribute important micronutrients, such as vitamin A, iron, folate and zinc to local people’s diets. Emilie was awarded the Talent Prize from the Royal Danish Geographical Society for her PhD thesis.

Sample publications

Vansant, E., Hall, C., den Braber, B., Kamoto, J., Geck, M., Reiner, F., & Rasmussen, L. V. (2025). Multipurpose trees on farms can improve nutrition in Malawi. One Earth 8: 101165

Vansant, E., den Braber, B., Hall, C., Kamoto, J., Reiner, F., Oldekop, J., & Rasmussen, L. V. (2024). Food-sourcing from on-farm trees mediates positive relationships between tree cover and dietary quality in Malawi. Nature Food, 1-6.

Vansant, E., Mausch, K., Ickowitz, McMullin S., Karanja, A., Rasmussen, L.V. (2022). What are the links between tree-based farming and dietary quality for rural households? A review of emerging evidence in low- and middle-income countries. People and Nature 4(2): 296-311

Creating and sharing seasonal food calendars with women in Malawi

As part of FORESTDIET, postdoc Charlotte Hall led a study, published in PNAS, which was the first of its kind to establish a causal link between deforestation and people’s dietary quality. While many studies in recent years have found positive associations between living in/near forests and people’s diets in low- and middle-income countries, none to date have established a causal relationship.  She found that for the average household who experienced a loss of 171 hectares of forest, fruit and vegetable intake decreased by 14 grams per person per day. Given the very low intake of fruit and vegetables in these communities (130 grams per person per day on average, relative to the recommended intake of 400 grams per day), this represented a substantial proportion (11%) of daily intake. 

Charlotte also led a study using panel data covering a 10-year period from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) to examine the effects of trees on farms on people’s dietary quality in rural Malawi. She found that having on-farm trees leads to higher and more diverse fruit and vegetable consumption. 

Sample publications

Hall, C. M., Den Braber, B., Vansant, E., Oldekop, J. A., Das, U., Fielding, D., Kamoto, J. F. M., & Rasmussen, L. V. (2025). Trees on farms improve dietary quality in rural Malawi. Conservation Letters, e13061.

Hall, C., Rasmussen, L. V., Powell, B., Dyngeland, C., Jung, S., & Olesen, R. S. (2022). Deforestation reduces fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Tanzania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(10), e2112063119.

UrlPreviewBox

As part of FORESTDIET, postdoc Bowy den Braber led a study showing that even low levels of tree cover improve dietary quality in West Africa. The study was published in PNAS NEXUS.

Also, Bowy led a study showing that tree plantations and forest regrowth are linked to poverty reduction in Africa. By combining a recent map that distinguishes tree plantations from regrowth from 2000 to 2012 with multidimensional poverty measures from more than 200,000 households, he found a positive association between people’s living standards and areas where tree plantations have expanded or, to a lesser extent, forest regrowth has occurred. 

Sample publications