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Traditional forest food made of shells andpalm heart cooked using firewoodphoto courtesy of Portia VillaranteFOOD& HEALTHSECURITYThe first Asian Forest Honey, Health and NutritionSymposium was held in Bogor, Indonesia back to backwith the Madhu Duniya to highlight the nutritional benefitsof wild honey. Experts from two academic institutions inMalaysia and Thailand shared groundbreaking research onthe health benefits of honey and its possibilities of curingdiabetes and cancer.Across NTFP-EP countries, forest communities have beenencouraged to go back to using their traditional food andmedicine. Punan communities in Malinau, Indonesia havealso been protecting the areas they planted with food andmedicine species. There has been no official recognitionfrom the local government yet, but NTFP-EP is working ongetting this through various forest management schemes.Similarly, in India, communities have started plantingmedicinal plants at their homesteads and communal areas.Forest, Culture and Food Festivals were organized in three(3) NTFP-EP country networks - in Tarlac, Philippines;Apoh Tutoh in Malaysia; and three (3) sites in India. Thefestival in Malaysia made the youth appreciate the NTFPswhich their elders depend on, such as medicinal plants,poison for blowpipe darts, utensils and instruments, amongothers. The Aeta, Forest Foods Festival presented a “gather,cooking and tasting” session. Rituals and recipes were alsoshared. These festivals celebrated the indigenous cultureand made communities aware of the importance of wildfoods to their diet, and of cultivating the species which arethreatened. Efforts at documenting wild food are ongoingin India.In Vietnam, NTFP-EP has started plans to set-up an NTFPmuseum to increase awareness on the forest-centric culturalheritage of ethnic communities.NTFP-EP 2011 Annual Report | 7