ANDES

Methodology

The International Training Workshop aims to bring together indigenous peoples from different geographical and biocultural regions of the world to engage in a contact learning zone environment, to learn about designing, planning, implementing and managing Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas. The methodology has been designed to facilitate cross cultural learning, using the Potato Park as a model of a biocultural territory for agrobiodiversity conservation centered on the potato. The methodology will provide conceptual and practical tools for replication of the model in other biocultural territories.

Biocultural systems are understood through indigenous concepts as holistic, interconnected wholes that have developed through historical recursive processes of co-evolution between the socio-cultural system and the ecosystems they inhabit.  Working with such complex adaptive systems poses challenges for management, and requires appropriate tools and methods. The methodology for the workshop has been designed using a combination of local indigenous methodologies for holistic thinking, and cutting edge tools for managing complex systems.  Tools for facilitating a process of thinking about complex situations, defining complex systems and analyzing their components to plan interventions, developed by the Open University (http://www.open.ac.uk/), use a systems approach and diagramming to guide interventions into real world complex situations. These tools have been adapted to work with indigenous biocultural systems and build upon the Potato Park experience.

Highly dynamic and participatory methodologies will facilitate learning through several avenues:

“DESIGN AND PLANNING OF AGROBIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AREAS”

The objective of this South-to-South Technology Transfer Workshop between Peruvian and Ethiopian researchers and practioners is to provide concepts and methods on how to design, plan, implement and manage Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas. Beginning with the training of a team of scientists and a farmer from Ethiopia interested in the conservation of agrobiodiversity and specifically that of their native Enset crop and its ecology, the farmers of the Potato Park of Cusco, Peru will facilitate this event that will also focus on how to conduct and organize action-research activities so that results can be effectively transformed into applicable information for establishing agrobiodiversity conservation areas, as well as for project problem-solving and policy-development.

This workshop will take place at the “Potato Park” Traditional Knowledge Centre in Pisaq, Cusco, Peru. The research and visitor facility is located within the “Potato Park,” a unique agrobiodiversity conservation area celebrating and protecting a unique traditional mountain agroecosystem and one of the richest native potato diversity areas in the world. The area is considered to be one of the centers of origin of the potato.

The “Potato Park,” an Indigenous Biocultural Territory established as an Agrobiodiversity Conservation Area by Association ANDES-IIED and six Quechua communities in Pisaq, Cusco, Peru, has become a hands-on example and demonstrative case of an effective plant genetic resources conservation approach. The replication and scaling up of this experience can play an important role in the promotion of effective conservation models, which are based on indigenous cultural traditions. The Potato Park not only respond to local socioeconomic interests, but also has been an effective conduit for the implementation of international conventions such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), CBD and ITPGRFA and the development of public policies in support of biocultural systems, poverty alleviation and indigenous rights at the local, national and international levels.

Designed specifically for a visiting group of farmers and researchers from Ethiopia who are interested in replicating the Potato Park experience by establishing an agrobiodiveristy conservation area in Southwest Ethiopia, the participatory workshop will consist of both academic and field sessions, inquiring into topics such as: Biocultural Systems; the Indigenous Biocultural Territory approach and agrobiodiversity conservation; Customary Laws and governance of agrobiodiversity conservation areas, repatriation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; agrobiodiversity and climate change; crop wild relatives conservation, collective creative economy; community-based agroecotourism; gastronomic sanctuaries, indigenous knowledge, access to genetic resources and intellectual property; local, national and international legal frameworks for agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable use; as well as the local implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Convention on Biological Diversity and the FAO’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

In addition to ANDES and Potato Park community experts and authorities, workshop trainers include experts from the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Reosurces for Food and Agriculture of the FAO of Rome, the International Potato Center (CIP) of Lima, the Center for Sustainability of the University Cayetano Heredia of Lima, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) of Peru, the Peruvian National Institute of Agrarian Innovation, INIA, the Ge@ Group of Ecuador and the Anthill Group of the UK.

The international recognition of the Potato Park and the scope of this workshop demonstrate the Park’s emergence as a hands-on example for indigenous peoples and local communities around the world, such as those from Ethiopia, of a rich case of agrobiodiversity and livelihood conservation, while offering the opportunity for South-to-South horizontal transfer of knowledge and information.

Assocation ANDES and the Association of Communities of the Potato Park are organizing this event with kind support and sponsorship from the Christensen Fund of the USA, the International Institue of Environment and Development (IIED) of the UK, the Peruvian National Institute of Agrarian Innovation, INIA, the Center for Sustainability of the University of Cayetano Heredia of Peru, the Commision on Environment, Economy Social Policy (CEESP) of the World Conservation Union, IUCN, and the International Potato Center.

For more information, please contact: Alejandro Argumedo   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Principles

Despite rapid advances in information technology that has, in theory, the potential to dramatically improve the flow of information on successful experiences and research findings in Indigenous Biocultural Territories to other indigenous communities and policy-makers, communication and interaction between indigenous peoples themselves is inadequate. The workshop aims to overcome the challenge using a Contact Learning Zone framework, allowing geographically and historically separated peoples to come into contact and establish on-going relations, creating a horizontal and democratic space for intercultural practice. Indigenous peoples from different biocultural territories will come together to inquire and learn about how to establish and manage an Agrobiodiversity Centre.

The shared colonial history of participating indigenous peoples has created legacies of coercion, inequality and conflict. The Contact Learning Zone will overcome these legacies by using the following principles:

• Sharing
• Solidarity
• Participatory knowledge discovery
• Cooperative management of knowledge
• Fostering of interdependent horizontal networking

Within this space, local methodologies which continue to play a critical role in technology transfer in all regions of the world will be used. They rely on group interactions for facilitating learning and transferring information and technology in a horizontal and reciprocal manner.

Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Food Sovereignty

SIGNED DECLARATION

From 20-29 September 2009 a group of farmers and scientists from Ethiopia and Peru met in the Potato Park, Pisac, in the Department of Cusco, Peru to engage in cross-cultural and horizontal learning about concepts and methods on how to design, plan, implement and manage Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas.

Discussion topics included a range of issues related to the conservation and sustainable use of native crops and agrobiodiversity. This included the Indigenous Biocultural Territory and Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas approach, and continued with Customary Laws and governance structures for conservation of agrobiodiversity, resilience in managing climatic changes, indigenous knowledge, access to genetic resources and intellectual property. Finally workshop participants considered possibilities for implementation of national and key international legal frameworks for agrobiodiversity conservations such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the FAO’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Through understanding the need to conserve agrobiodiversity and agricultural landscapes and in particular to protect and promote native crops, we the participants:

• Recognize the sacred and inherent rights of Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) to its integrity and to the diversity and richness of its expressions and adhere to the principles of reciprocity and balance upon which Pacha Mama nurtures life for all its children
• Acknowledge that indigenous peoples have a commonality of world vision, and experiences relating to the sacredness of their agroecosystems and crops
• Highlight the contributions of indigenous peoples’ to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and Emphasize the importance of resilience intrinsic to indigenous peoples’ farming systems and the agroecosystems in which they both live and nurture for building adaptation and mitigation strategies to climate change
• Identify that the most effective approach to the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity is the implementation of protected agricultural landscape models based on indigenous cultural traditions that celebrate the diversity and richness of agrobiodiversity and use traditional knowledge and practices to continue innovating and recreating diversity
• Highlight the fact that appropriate land use is intimately linked to sustainable development and “Sumaq Causay” (an indigenous view of development based on respect for and reciprocity with Pacha Mama) and to adaptation and mitigation practices. Indigenous and traditional agriculture can play an important role in the context of climate change, food security and poverty reduction. Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas should be promoted for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, because they encompass both poverty reduction and food sovereignty.
• Highlight the fact that Agricultural Conservation Areas that build on indigenous cultural traditions promote sustainable livelihoods, enhance conservation and use of agricultural biological diversity are critical for agriculture to be able to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Agricultural Conservation Areas managed by the expertise of indigenous peoples and farmers, are vital places for offering native crops and their wild relatives a chance at adapting to the new climatic conditions. Furthermore they facilitate effective exchange of native seeds among farmers allowing for the evaluation of their suitability and thus continued evolution.
• Acknowledge the importance of building bridges between scientific and indigenous knowledge systems to create effective methods for food sovereignty, conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity, including the design, planning and implementation of Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas and Participatory Plant Breeding programs that focus on adaptation to the new, harsher climatic conditions which are coming our way rapidly.
• Promote of cross-national and cross-cultural knowledge and information transfer based on pedagogical practices and educational processes which are closer to the learning models of marginal and excluded groups
• Encourage action research and south-to-south technology transfer based on the establishment of “Contact Learning Zones” to allow geographically and historically separated peoples to engage in dialogue, creating horizontal and democratic spaces of intercultural practice, inquiry, and participatory learning, replacing colonial legacies of coercion, inequality, and conflict, with sharing and solidarity, participatory knowledge discovery, cooperative management of knowledge and the fostering of interdependent horizontal networks.
• Recognize that the emergence of experiential, local indigenous examples of agrobiodiversity conservation such as the Potato Park, offers communities a demonstrative case and the opportunity for horizontal sharing of information and experiences
• Reiterate that the most effective approach to the implementation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity is the implementation of models based on the local context and culture and the application of traditional knowledge, practices and innovation systems

This exchange has reaffirmed our dedication to building strategies and technologies that promote the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. We can achieve this collectively by strengthening alliances, supporting exchanges, sharing our struggles, and being in solidarity with communities like our own around the world.

We are committed to working together and in our own communities towards our goals of ensuring food sovereignty and fostering locally led initiatives for the protection and promotion of agrobiodiversity and local rights, as responses to global crises and combating neo-liberal policies that threaten our ways of life.

In order to achieve conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity and important native crops and wild relatives in the face of global change we:

• Recognize the ecologically (re)productive work of women and the important contribution women make to agricultural production, despite their unequal access to land, information, and inputs. Incorporate women’s concerns and views into local, national, and international agriculture and food policy making.
• Recognize that Indigenous women are deeply affected by climate change and its impacts, including decreased access to water and soil degradation.  Women are responsible for helping families meet their most basic needs and they participate in critical food and agricultural activities such as feeding the family, tilling the soil and selecting and saving seeds. Women’s specific knowledge of maintaining biodiversity, through the conservation and domestication of wild edible plant seeds and food crop breeding, is key to adapting to climate change more effectively.
• Recognize that the role of women in water collection for their communities is of the utmost importance, and that climate change will make this even more time consuming and present new challenges.
• Call for the development of local creative solidarity economies that allow farming communities to control production and processing of their resources
• Recognize that indigenous and local communities are the rightful owners of the biological, genetic and cultural resources they have nurtured, as well as their traditional knowledge and practices and innovation systems derived from centuries of stewardship of Mother Earth
• Assert that indigenous peoples and local communities have the sovereign right to define their food production and consumption systems, to safe and healthy food and to healthy communities and environments
• Call for the recognition and respect of indigenous peoples, land rights and rights to biological, genetic, and cultural resources which are inextricably bound to their traditional territories
• Urge all governments to stop all destructive agricultural policies and perverse incentives that threaten local livelihoods and traditional cultures, especially in the face of the current economic, food, and climate crises
• Urge governments to stop Free Trade Agreements and halt the implementation of those that bring poverty to indigenous peoples and small farmers through the privatization of seeds, indigenous and traditional knowledge
• Implore governments to criminalize biopiracy
• Call all national and international organizations and foundations to stop the new "green revolution" policies and practices worldwide that are being forcefully promoted, and to instead support indigenous peoples and local communities’ approaches to conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources, landscapes and livelihoods
• Call upon all governments and companies to prohibit technologies of food terror such as the GURTs or “Terminator” and GMO technologies and to stop the privatization and patenting of seeds, all life forms and indigenous and traditional knowledge
• Reject the current top-down, profit driven agriculture and food strategies that promote the same technologies and practices that have created the present crises and offer alternatives in the time-tested solutions of indigenous peoples and local communities that must be valued
• Urge the acknowledgement and promotion of the importance of the repatriation of seeds and other biological and genetic materials and associated traditional knowledge, collected from indigenous and local communities, for the food sovereignty of our peoples and for tackling climate change and the restitution of the rights of Pacha Mama
• Call for urgent protection of the inherent rights of indigenous farmers to freely share and exchange seeds
• Urge the international community and donors to support the local implementation of the UNDRIP and the participation of indigenous peoples in UN forums and other international environmental and human rights conventions so that their view may be accurately and strongly represented
• Call upon all governments and global financial institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to support small farmers’ food sovereignty
• Call for an end to all neo-liberal economic policies that promote “dumping”, subsidized agri-business, monocultures, and monopolization, commodification, and privatization of knowledge, seeds and ecosystem services and infringe upon the rights of indigenous peoples and small farmers, particularly in relation to access to water, land and free exchange of seeds

Attesting to the above declaration, made on the 29th of September 2009, in the community of Sacaca of the Potato Park, we sign below.