Does household food biodiversity protect adults against malnutrition and favour the resilience of Shawi Indigenous households to climate change related events?
Wellcome Trust
Cayetano Heredia University
Undernutrition is a major consequence of climate change. Biodiversity could enhance climate change resilience of local food systems by improving human nutritional outcomes and providing healthy local food resources during/after climate-related risks. What is unclear, however, is how food biodiversity (FBD) is linked to human nutritional status. This study aims to answer that question by investigating impacts of FBD on the prevalence of malnutrition-related anemia in Shawi Indigenous adults aged 15 to 60 years old and assess the role of FBD on the resilience of Shawi to extreme floods in past five years. This will be achieved through two complementary studies. In the first study, Shawi people who have experienced recent floods will have FBD measured using questionnaires and 24-hour recall. Anemia will be assessed using a novel, non-invasive, image-based application alongside measuring blood hemoglobin. Given that seasonal changes could affect FBD, a cross sectional study with repeated measurements will be conducted to explore if the association between FBD and anemia is stable at different times of year. In the second study, community-based participatory approaches will be used with Shawi participants to investigate the role of FBD on responding to extreme floods Key words: nutrition, biodiversity, Amazonia, resilience, Indigenous people
2.3 Psychological, social and economic factors