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Conservation methods that promote the production and use of local varieties in intensively managed in-situ agricultural systems are important to prevent the loss of globally important plant genetic resources (Brush, 1999, 7-8). Maintaining traditional varieties that remain central to farmers’ livelihood strategies demand policies that build upon local values, cultures, and traditional resource rights. Planning for the conservation of plant biodiversity needs to begin by identifying and acknowledging community-level institutions before incorporating them into policy frameworks.
Community institutions, together with their higher-order correlates, provide sets of rules, norms, and guidelines- sometimes contradictory- that establish the framework in which farmers’ make decisions about which varieties to cultivate. Institutions may include local traditions, market forces, or cultural values; and unless carefully coordinated, the various institutions often provide contradictory sets of incentives. Understanding the mechanisms linking competing local-level and higher-order institutions to individual decision-making, requires a strategy to systematically identify the total number and various types of pathways by which local institutions influence individuals’ choices.
Current projects are:
Central Asia
Andean Biodiversity Corridor
The biblography about Traditional knowledge
is available for download
PDF file
(7.34 KB).
The
IPGRI project, ‘Strengthening Community Institutions to Support the
Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources in Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan,’ aims at understanding how socio-economic factors affect the
maintenance and use of the rich crop and tree diversity in Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan. This region is a centre of genetic diversity for some of the
world's most important fruits and vegetables, including apples, pears, peaches,
almonds and walnuts, and is undergoing major social, economic and
institutional changes that could affect the conservation and use of
agricultural biodiversity (especially plant genetic resources).
Working together with national partners, the IPGRI research team is interviewing peasant farmers (dehkons/daykans), commercial farmers (firmirs), traders, policy-makers, local crop experts and villagers to identify cultural practices, maintain the region's rich biological heritage while ensuring that diverse crop and tree genetic resources contribute to the secure and sustainable livelihoods of people in the region.
More Details about the IPGRI Project:
Project goal
The project seeks to understand how changes in land tenure and rural institutions have affected the conservation and use of plant genetic resources (PGR) in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Research
objectives
To identify pockets of diversity of fruit and nut tree species with economic, cultural and biological importance.
To determine the impact of different land tenure regimes and rural institutions onbiodiversity and livelihoods.
To understand the interactions between market and cultural factors that can influence the rate at which genetic diversity is eroded.
Research
questions
How have economic reforms and changes in land tenure affected fruit tree diversity?
How have changes in agricultural systems and farm management affected fruit tree diversity?
How do the current land tenure system and institutional structures influence what crops are grown?
What historical events have significantly influenced the diversity of trees and crops grown?
Which crops and varieties are being introduced, which are disappearing and which continue to be cultivated?
What are the causes of changing cropping patterns?
How has the erosion of plant genetic resources affected the long-term livelihood strategies of farmers (dehkons/daykans)?
Research methods
Participatory setting of research objectives with local scientists.
Household surveys of farmers recording the fruit crops they grow and the composition of their household.
Discussions with groups of farmers about where they obtain and how they value and use genetic resources and agricultural information.
Historical studies of the biological, environmental and sociological changes in village structure.
Surveys of markets to quantify the monetary values, movements, sources and demand for different fruit and nut varieties.
Economic analysis of benefit flows arising from the use of and access to plant genetic resources.
Preliminary findings
The initial phase of the project has focused on Uzbekistan, where horticultural crops have been cultivated in the Fergana Valley since the time of Alexander the Great. Archeological evidence suggests that an agricultural economy connected outlying villages with the ancient city of Kuva 2000 years ago. The Valley is a centre of genetic diversity for over 40 orchard and horticultural crops and remains the major producer of grapes, apricots and almonds in Central Asia. Developing sustainable agriculture in Uzbekistan depends on the continued domestication, cultivation and use of local biodiversity in the Fergana Valley.
During the Soviet period collective farms were the main producers of fruits and grapes in Uzbekistan. Soviet government policies actively discriminated against cultivation and exchange of local varieties. The number of crop varieties grown has fallen since 1950 across all categories of crops. As a result of land-tenure reforms since the fall of the Soviet Union, however, households and private farmers have become the principle producers of orchard and horticultural crops.
The cultivation of traditional fruit and nut varieties is now an important part of local farmers’ livelihood strategies. Although more land is now planted to fruits and nuts, Uzbekistan has already lost some of its crop genetic diversity. This project aims to identify the factors contributing to the reduction in the number of local fruit and nut varieties grown and to provide suggestions and policies that may reverse this trend.
Land tenure is not the only influence on what farmers grow. Input markets also affect farmers’ choices. Mineral fertilizers, wages, seed and planting materials are the major material costs in crop production on collective farms, whereas on smallholdings, fertilizer and pesticides are the greatest expenditures. Our research examines the market channels through which farmers obtain inputs and the institutions that structure the market channels. Our research is identifying the obstacles that farmers face in acquiring inputs; information that can be used by local and national authorities to help farmers increase their productivity.
Building on the work in Uzbekistan, the project is planning a similar study in Turkmenistan focusing on some of the important vegetable and fruit species in that country.
Useful Links
Central Asia Bibliography
Local Institutions In Central Asia PowerPoint presentation
Ruta Condor: A network of agrobiodiversity protected landscapes linking cultural and biologically important areas in the Andes mountain system
The Andean region represents one of the most biologically and culturally diverse regions in the world. It contains 2 recognized hotspots of biodiversity, two of the eight recognized important centres of origin of major cultivated species (Vavilov Centres), 20 of the 36 World Heritage Sites of South America, and Andean countries harbor more than 205 languages. This great diversity is deteriorating rapidly in the face of global trends, and current conservation approaches in the region are deficient in that they have failed to comprehensively address socioeconomic, cultural, political and institutional challenges.
The South American Andes comprise 7250 km of mountain formations, and cover a continuous area of over two million km2 stretching from the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Colombia (11oN) to Chile's Tierra del Fuego (55oS). The Andes' North-South orientation, extreme altitudinal variability and high geomorphologic range has contributed to an extraordinary level of biological diversity. Further, for more than 30,000 years the Andes have been populated by peoples whose creativity and innovation nurtured a wealth of cultural and biological diversity. Andean peoples, perhaps the most renowned of which were the Incas, possessed complex social structures based on a deep knowledge of, and spiritual connection with, the mountain ecosystems they inhabited.
Traditional Andean societies are based on principles of ecological, productive and social sustainability which had at its core a profound respect for Mother Earth (Pacha Mama) and reverence for the power and fragility of the mountains (Apus). These principles have been integrated into landscape conservation strategies which combined the management of agricultural spaces with natural and culturally important areas in a holistic management system. The management approach of traditional agriculture is ecosystem based, and provides a nurturing environment for creating diversity and maintaining the health of domesticated and wild plant and animal species as well as diverse ecological formations. These societies employed integrated management and land use planning systems that maintained mosaics of land use types, including agriculture and natural areas and included the maintenance of border habitats for wildlife. Agriculture and related land use continue to define Andean landscapes, exerting great influence on the environment, economy, society and culture of the mountains. The system of agricultural practices is governed by a set of cultural principles embedded in a cosmovision of exchange, reciprocity, and nurturing. Traditional Andean livelihood strategies are based on maximizing the value of biodiversity to increase security and buffer shocks. The Andean community approach to optimizing diversity is evidenced by the large numbers of potato varieties that farmers cultivate, the regular use and management of wild resources and the importance of animals domesticated and semi domesticated within the household economy and landscape. The multiple functions of traditional agriculture in the Andes extend beyond the production of food, fiber and other goods (such as medicines and timber) for immediate benefit. Additional functions include food security, environmental sustainability, development and social and economic well-being.
The establishment of the Ruta Condor will involve indigenous and traditional communities along the Route, and will require and strive for effective mechanisms to coordinate actions and make decisions, collaborating with other conservation and development actors at the local and regional level and from national and international sources. Direct participation and control of the project by the local communities will ensure that the views of the indigenous peoples and their construction of local reality is the basis of the intervention. This will also guarantee that landscape conservation activities are tailored to local realities and ensure the project’s acceptance and success. The project strategy will promote the use of traditional knowledge, and will benefit from its shared ownership, adaptive nature, and Earth-based cosmovision. In addition, the Ruta Condor initiative aims to influence regional protected area policy, especially where local communities are concerned, and act as a catalyzer for much needed policy and institutional reforms.