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.