Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- Resource: Report on the first round of the project cycle of the ITPGR Benefit-sharing Fund
- Resource: Report of the Independent Expert on human rights and the environment
- This week in review … FFP piece comments on IPBES and indigenous knowledge
- This week in review … Development policy should include TK, conference hears
- Resource: Book on co-creation of sciences
- This week in review … Indigenous knowledge reveals widespread mammal decline in northern Australia
- Funding opportunity: WIN Conference
- This week in review … Indian state initiates work on people's biodiversity registers
Resource: Report on the first round of the project cycle of the ITPGR Benefit-sharing Fund Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:40 AM PST Report on the First Round of the Project Cycle of the Benefit-sharing Fund Published by the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR), the report on the first round of the project cycle of the Treaty's Benefit-sharing Fund contains financial and technical information related to the overall operation of the first project portfolio of the Benefit-sharing Fund; provides an overview of its results; and presents a number of lessons learned and recommendations drawn from the execution of the first round of the project cycle. According to the report, from 2009-2011, the Benefit-sharing Fund contributed towards strengthening the capacities of more than 6,000 farmers and supported the collection of over 360 accessions of traditional varieties and crop wild relatives, as well as the characterization for useful traits of more than 2,200 accessions of varieties held on-farm and in gene banks. It contributed to ongoing activities for the identification and/or breeding of more than 270 accessions – which exhibit high yield, resistance to climate stress, tolerance to crop disease, or a combination thereof – and the distribution of locally adapted planting material to more than 1,800 farmers. Over 1,700 accessions of crops addressed by the portfolio will be made available under the terms and conditions of the Multilateral System of access and benefit-sharing of the Treaty, which is expected to multiply the Benefit-sharing Fund's impact globally. Overall, the results of the first cycle have built a strong case for supporting the continuation of this initiative and larger scale investment in future project cycles. Eleven projects in developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Near East were funded during the first round. Project activities ranged from surveying threatened traditional crop varieties for their climate adaptability and stress resilience, and disseminating and reintroducing varieties that are best adapted to local conditions, to generating income by creating value-added products from local varieties. According to the report, low-income farming communities were the ultimate beneficiaries. Farmers were directly involved at many stages of project implementation, including in the collection of local crops and the documentation of related traditional practices, seed multiplication and distribution, and a range of awareness-raising and training activities. For example, under the framework of the project in India, 14 village-level enterprises were established, including five farmer breeder nurseries and nine women self-help groups. According to P.R. Sarrasamma, leader of a women self-help group, the project resulted in more and more women in their tribal community showing interest in cultivating traditional varieties, resulting in a revival of their identity. The community saved enough seeds for the next seasons and shared them among themselves, and started preparing their own traditional recipes and earning income. Under the Peru project, five new biocultural products based on local potato varieties were developed and are now commercialized in the Potato Park (where the indigenous communities involved in the project are based) and on local markets under the trademark of the Potato Park. Thanks to a local benefit-sharing agreement signed among the six indigenous communities, a percentage of the sales of any of the products that carry the Potato Park trademark label goes into a communal fund for Potato Park activities. In addition, the online Local Biocultural Register was created, where both traditional knowledge and scientific characterization data related to the addressed potato varieties are jointly accessible. Both the projects in India and Peru, as well as those in Egypt, Senegal and Tanzania, have actively promoted the wider use of traditional and locally adapted varieties among farmers. Furthermore, an important feature of the project portfolio was the two-way exchange between farmers and genebanks. In the framework of the Peru project for example, 410 accessions of native potato varieties conserved ex situ by the International Potato Centre were reintroduced into the fields of the indigenous communities of the Cusco area, where they had previously been lost due to genetic erosion. Several projects, including the ones in Costa Rica, Morocco, Senegal and Tanzania, directly involved farmers in joint activities with scientific genebank personnel, to enable them to engage actively in the selection of genebank crop material that meets their local needs. Download the publication [pdf] … Visit the Benefit-sharing Fund website … |
Resource: Report of the Independent Expert on human rights and the environment Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:38 AM PST Report of the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, John H. Knox This first report of the Independent Expert, to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council at its 22nd session in March 2013, is intended to place the mandate in a historical context, present some of the outstanding issues relevant to the relationship between human rights and the environment, and describe the current and planned programme of activities. The Independent Expert explains that many issues related to the obligations that human rights law imposes regarding environmental protection need greater study and clarification. His first priority is therefore to provide greater conceptual clarity to the application of human rights obligations related to the environment, taking an evidence-based approach to determining the nature, scope and content of these obligations. It is noted in the report that indigenous peoples are at particular risk from many kinds of environmental damage because of their cultural and economic dependence on environmental resources. Their procedural rights have received detailed recognition in international instruments, for instance ILO Convention 169 concerning the protection and integration of indigenous and other tribal and semi-tribal populations in independent countries includes a general requirement that governments consult with the peoples concerned whenever giving consideration to measures that may affect them directly. More specifically, it provides for the assessment of environmental impacts of proposed development activities and makes clear that the rights of indigenous peoples to the natural resources pertaining to their lands include the right to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources. Similarly, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to participate in decision-making on matters that would affect their rights and provides that States shall consult with the indigenous peoples concerned to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing measures that may affect them, particularly with respect to projects involving the development, use or exploitation of natural resources. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has stated that the State must consult with the community regarding any proposed concessions or other activities that may affect their lands and natural resources, ensure that no concession is issued without a prior assessment of its environmental and social impacts and guarantee that the community receives a reasonable benefit from any such plan if approved. With respect to "large-scale development or investment projects that would have a major impact", the State must do more than consult; it must obtain the community's "free, prior, and informed consent, according to their customs and traditions". Download the report [pdf] … Visit the website of the 22nd regular session of the Human Rights Council … Visit the Independent Expert's webpage … |
This week in review … FFP piece comments on IPBES and indigenous knowledge Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:36 AM PST Can IPBES move from a science platform to a diverse knowledge platform? LONDON, UK: This article provides a comment on the first meeting of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), held from 21-26 January 2013, in Bonn, Germany. IPBES, established in Panama City in April 2012, is intended to serve as an independent intergovernmental body for assessing the state of the planet's biodiversity, its ecosystems and the services they provide to society. The Bonn meeting was attended by a small delegation of indigenous peoples and local communities, who drew attention to the value and importance of indigenous and local knowledge and the need for a true partnership between diverse knowledge holders and the IPBES. Furthermore, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders must be enabled to fully and effectively participate in the process. The meeting addressed a series of organizational, procedural and budgetary issues, including the election of its Chair, Bureau and Multidisciplinary Expert Panel. On the IPBES rules of procedure, issues related to admission of observers remained pending, and discussions will continue intersessionally and at IPBES-2. Read the article … Read the official report of the meeting … Read the IISD Reporting Services summary and analysis of the meeting … |
This week in review … Development policy should include TK, conference hears Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:34 AM PST Policymakers urged to include local knowledge in aid projects BRIGHTON, UK: The process of providing scientific advice on development policy should involve a wide range of experts, including social scientists and those with local and traditional knowledge, a symposium at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, was told. The annual symposium of the STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability), based at the University of Sussex, UK, was held from 6-7 February 2013 and addressed the global politics of scientific advice, focusing on maintaining credibility across cultures. Several speakers stressed that aid and development programmes designed solely using evidence from the "hard" sciences can overlook local needs. They emphasized that such initiatives can fail to take account of the insights and understanding of the local people intended to be their key beneficiaries. For example, Suman Sahai, a geneticist who runs the Gene Campaign, an organization that protects farmers' rights in India, said that indigenous science often had as much to offer as modern science, adding that the lack of parity between the two was partly because of the power structure behind new science and technology. "If problem-solving is to be local, the knowledge applied to it needs to be credible locally," she said. "Solutions do not have to be credible across countries, but only where they are relevant." Lidia Brito, director of science policy at UNESCO, told the meeting that science advice on development-related issues needed to work across scales "from the global to the local" and to connect up diverse groups of stakeholders. Read the article … Visit the STEPS Symposium website, including links to presentations and resources … |
Resource: Book on co-creation of sciences Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:32 AM PST Towards Co-creation of Sciences: Building on the plurality of worldviews, values and methods in different knowledge communities This book is the product of two international programmes in which NGOs and universities have been working to understand, appreciate, revalue and strengthen endogenous knowledge. Its objective is to stimulate co-creation of sciences through an inter-cultural and inter-scientific dialogue. The book presents ways of knowing in a number of knowledge communities in countries across the globe: Ghana (Ancestral knowledge the rural Dagaba and Gruni ethnic groups), India (Classical Indian health science: Ayurveda), Bolivia (Pacha-centred knowledge of the Aymara and Quechua communities of the Andes), and the Netherlands (mainstream cisgenic potato research at Wageningen University and Research Centre). The presentation is done from the perspective of the knowledge holders themselves, describing their worldviews and ways of learning, the dominant values, the knowledge that has been accumulated by the different knowledge communities, and ways in which these communities agree about the validity of their own knowledge. The authors have sought ways to express and enhance the different sciences by articulating their foundations, and exploring their strengths and weaknesses, and possibilities for improving endogenous ways of knowing. Intra-science learning and action and inter-science dialogue can lead to the co-creation of a plurality of sciences. Further information … Download the book announcement [docx] … |
This week in review … Indigenous knowledge reveals widespread mammal decline in northern Australia Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:27 AM PST Indigenous knowledge reveals widespread mammal decline in northern Australia CALIFORNIA, USA: Over the course of four years, a team of Australian researchers journeyed through the remote landscapes of Northern Australia to tap a vanishing resource: the wealth of knowledge carried by the indigenous inhabitants. Their study, published in January 2013 in Biological Conservation concludes that there have been major declines in native Northern Australian mammals, and also suggests a relationship between the decline of Indigenous knowledge and the decline of biodiversity. Authored by M.R. Ziembicki, J.C.Z. Woinarski and B. Mackey, the study aimed to assess the extent and timing of change in mammal status across a broad area of northern Australia (the monsoonal tropics of the Northern Territory). Indigenous information about terrestrial native mammal fauna (excluding bats) was compiled from a large series of interviews conducted across indigenous communities. Declines were reported as extending from the earliest memory of indigenous participants, but the rate of decline has increased recently. These changes were reported across all five regions within the broad study area and were greater for "critical weight range" species than for other species. Indigenous participants suggested several factors were associated with the changing status of species. The study's results reveal a pattern of widespread decline in the mammal fauna of the monsoonal tropics of northern Australia, thereby corroborating the conclusions of recent more local wildlife monitoring studies. The study also demonstrated the value and capability of indigenous ecological knowledge to complement and corroborate more intensive and local scientific studies. Read the Mongabay article … Read the research article in Biological Conservation … |
Funding opportunity: WIN Conference Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:09 AM PST Financial assistance available to attend the WIN Conference, Darwin, Australia from 26-31 May 2013 Financial assistance for indigenous land and sea managers within Australia is now open. The deadline for applications is 15 March 2013. Indigenous and Local Community land and sea managers, rangers, mentors and community elders may be eligible to apply. Financial assistance includes travel to Darwin, Conference registration, accommodation and a living allowance. Further information … Read the eligibility criteria, including link to application form … |
This week in review … Indian state initiates work on people's biodiversity registers Posted: 20 Feb 2013 04:07 AM PST State digs into folk knowledge to discover biodiversity wonders AHMEDABAD, INDIA: The Gujarat Biodiversity Board has embarked on a massive project to prepare "people's biodiversity registers" containing comprehensive information about folk knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal and other uses or any other traditional knowledge associated with them. The board has set up 1,200 biodiversity management committees in 19 districts of the state for preparing such registers, and has signed memoranda of understanding with 102 village panchayats in five districts. Assistance is being provided by experts from various disciplines for scientific documentation of the plant and animal resources. Read the article … |
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