A Policy brief calling companies in the food and animal feed industries, government departments, aid agencies, and research and development organizations to take on board knowledge about this source of ‘free’ food that will improve rural livelihoods and food security in famine-prone dry areas.

The need for sound scientific information in the development of public forest policies at the local, national and international levels has grown significantly in recent years. So too has the need for such information within the private forestry sector and among nongovernmental organizations, whose role in the development, sustainable management and conservation of forest resources in all regions of the world is steadily increasing in importance. Despite rapid advances in information technology that has, in theory, the potential to significantly improve the flow of research findings to policy-makers and forest managers, communication and interaction often is inadequate between the research community and the users of the information they generate.
 

Also, often research is planned and conducted before giving adequate thought to exactly how the results will be transformed into usable information. In order to generate value for society, research results should be used by someone – policy-makers, forestry practitioners, landowners, educators and other researchers. The science-policy interface is all about utilising scientific knowledge more effectively.