Food security index and forest cover change
We developed an index of food security for the Caatinga using the four dimensions described in FAO (2013) to select the variables to represent each dimension. All variables were collected from the Brazilian official sources (e.g. IBGE, Ministry of Health) using 1,141 municipalities of the Caatinga as sample units (Figure 1). We selected 38 variables that are summarised in Table 1. The respective premise and sources of each variable are in Supplementary Table 1.
Table 1. Variables used to build a food security index for the Caatinga municipalities and the respective measure and brief definition.