Protected areas of defined geographic zones can slow biodiversity loss and bolster conversation efforts, but they may have unintended impacts on the diets of children who live nearby, according to new research from scientists at Penn State.
Published today (Oct. 3) in the British Ecological Society's journal People and Nature, the researchers analyzed children's diets in Cambodia and Myanmar by distance from the nearest protected area. They found that diet quality increased the farther from the protected area the child lived up to about 80 kilometers and then declined at greater distances. The researchers also found that, in Indigenous population areas, the odds that children ate vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables were highest around 80 kilometers and lower both nearer and farther away. The same association did not persist in non-Indigenous areas.
Vitamin A supports growth and immune defenses in children; too little can cause night blindness and increase the risk of illness and death from infections such as measles and diarrheal disease, according to the World Health Organization. Understanding how proximity to protected areas relates to vitamin A-rich foods can help conservation and public health planners align strategies as nations expand protection goals, said Lilly Zeitler, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at Penn State who led the study.
"In some places, local communities rely directly on nearby lands and ecosystems for food," she said. "They manage these food systems under customary tenure - local rules enforced by tradition and social norms rather than formal laws. Creating protected areas can disrupt that customary tenure, with negative effects on how people get food. Alternatively, tourism can boost local incomes near protected areas in ways that alter households' food purchasing patterns. Despite these clear conceptual links between protected areas and local diets, these relationships remain poorly understood."
