Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition: Promoting Brazilian Underutilized Edible Plants into Food and Nutrition Security National Policies

Brazil is one of the most megadiverse countries in the world, but, despite being home to approximately 15–20% of global plant diversity, the country’s agriculture and food security are very reliant on exotic or introduced crops or species. Much of the neglected native biodiversity is highly nutritious and could help provide sustainable solutions to diversifying diets and promoting agricultural development while also promoting biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation and resilience. The Global Environment Facility-funded Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project (BFN) in Brazil aimed at strengthening the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by providing evidence of its benefits for nutrition and well-being and mainstreaming native underutilized edible plants into national food and nutrition policies and programs, such as the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). One of the most important achievements was the publication of the official list of native species of the Brazilian sociobiodiversity with current or potential nutritional value (Ordinance N° 284/2018), which is being used to guide, measure, and monitor the expenditures of sociobiodiversity products by procurement programs. The project established research partnerships with universities and research institutes to generate nutritional data and recipes with native species, developed advocacy workshops, and strategic alliances with key actors from federal Ministries partners of BFN, in addition to capacity building materials and awareness raising events. Some of these achievements were documented in the Plants for the Future books, a regional recipe book and a nutritional database, providing evidence to raise awareness and influence policies.