Food: Tropical dry forests contribute to local diets with
wild fruits, vegetables, nuts, edible insects and bushmeat.
These forest products are extremely important for food
security, especially in times of scarcity. In addition, wild
foods provide essential nutrients to the diets of people
who live in or near forested areas.14
Fuel: Wood is the main source of energy for households
in dry forest areas. Some 2.4 billion people – about 40
percent of the population of less developed countries –
cook with fuelwood. Of these, 764 million people
may use wood to boil water for drinking.15
Livelihoods: Dry forests supply products that can be
gathered and sold, such as beeswax, honey, plants,
insects or wood for charcoal making. These freely
accessible products provide even the very poor with
enterprise opportunities, which, with support, can
become a means of economic development and
poverty alleviation.16
Carbon storage for climate change mitigation:
By storing carbon, dry forests help mitigate climate
change. It is known that dry forests store less carbon
than humid forests, but very little is known about the
actual amounts of carbon stored, as measuring carbon
stocks requires a different approach from humid forests,
and dry forest inventories tend to be incomplete,
missing or out of date.17
Climate change adaptation: The food and livelihoods
provided by dry forests may play a critical role in building
communities’ resilience to climate change and variability.18
Support of agriculture: Dry forests provide a wide
range of ecosystem services, such as water management,
livestock provisioning, pollination services, nutrient cycling
and soil improvement. Through these services, dry forests
play an important, complex – yet not fully understood
– role in supporting the agricultural systems upon which
millions of subsistence farmers depend.3