A presentation by Pablo B. Eyzaguirre given at Bioversity International Rome HQ on 24 May 2011. A look at Bioversity’s unique role linking biodiversity, food security, resilience, livelihoods and culture.

1. “Can Biodiversity Research Change the Future of Agriculture? Lessons from Biocultural Landscapes”by Pablo B. EyzaguirreBioversity International Rome 24 May 20111

2. Bioversity’s unique role linking biodiversity, food security, resilience, livelihoods and culture

4. 15 years of research to show how gender and local knowledge encodes and unlocks the knowledge and potential of agrobiodiversity to improve food security .

5. 10 years of research to show the value in economic and more recently in nutritional and health terms of agricultural biodiversity to the lives of the poor

6. 5 years of research on how farmers use biodiversity for resilience and productivity

8. Research on agrobiodiversity custodians and bio-cultural landscapes Bolivia Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Cuba Sarawak Malaysia

9. Tomatoes are grown everywhere, but only a few places cultivate diversity There are approximately 7500 tomato varieties grown around the world. The map shows the global distribution of tomato output in 2005. The biggest producers are often not those with the greatest diversity. The food culture and diverse growing environments are where the diversity is found.

10. Culture is the fast track for moving crops into new environments, finding new uses and values, enhancing genetic diversity of cultivars . Biocultural value and multiple uses of San Marzano tomatoes Legend has it that the first tomato seeds came to San Marzano in the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples in 1770, as a gift from the Bourbon Viceroy of Peru The seeds were planted in the area of San Marzano at the base of Mount Vesuvius, whose rich volcanic soil, hot summers, culture of drying fruits and elaborating sauces created a unique biocultural pathway for new tomato diversity

11. Chayote (Sechiumedule) Chayote is native to Mesoamerica. Cultures in Asia have been successful in cultivating it as well. The main growing regions are Costa Rica and Veracruz, Mexico. Costa Rican chayotes are predominantly exported to the European Union whereas Veracruz is the main exporter of chayotes to the United States. The chayote fruit is used in both raw and cooked forms. When cooked, chayote is usually handled like summer squash, it is generally lightly cooked to retain the crisp flavor. Raw chayote may be added to salads or salsas, and it is often marinated with lemon or lime juice. Whether raw or cooked, chayote is a good source of amino acids and vitamin C. The tubers of the plant are eaten as root vegetables., particularly in Southwest China. In addition, the shoots and leaves can be consumed, and they are often used in salads and stir fries, especially in Southeast Asia. Main distribution of Chayote

12. Farmers’ selection characters and disease in cassava

13. The diversity of bottle gourd in Kenya Various landraces of L.siceraria (bottle gourd) fruits in Kenya. Seeds of cultivated species, L.siceraria.

14. Findings Origin Diversity Mutation Hybridization Diversifying selection Maintenance Stabilizing selection Diversity maintained

15. Culture and plant use can support each other: The Kanyika Kitete Museum works to conserve gourds (Lagenaria) and Kamba culture.

16. Taro in Cuban home gardens Minimal management under coffee and fruit trees Careful management in boxes

17. Local Yunnan taro types distinguished by corm formation,taste and cooking quality

18. Intensive intercropping of taro in paddy, an efficient and profitable agronomic practice in Asia

19. In extensive low-input agriculture taro also has a place, taro cultivars are grown in swiddens in Southeast Asian hillsides along with upland rice

20. Preservation of food cultures that use all parts of the taro plant and taro in all its statuses from wild, ruderal cultivated and intensive production is key for the conservation of taro genetic diversity Wild type taros are used and valued for their stolons, made into pickle and also noted for medicinal properties.

21. Taro flowers travelling to urban market on a bicycle to be sold and then stir fried

22. A new approach to biodiversityand agriculture More than 1.1 billion people living within the world’s 25 biodiversity ‘hotspot areas’ (Myers et al. 2000) – this includes people living in the 12% of the world’s land area that is under some form of protected area management. CBD-COP10 Nagoya adopts a new target , 17% of world’s terrestrial surface under protected management beginning in 2011 Biodiversity conservation includes development needs and community participation as integral elements of both ecosystem and conservation management strategies Biodiversity conservation in partnership with agriculture to achieve conservation targets and Millennium Development Goals. How Agriculture is can support and depends upon Biodiversity is now top priority in biodiversity conservation agenda. UNEP, IUCN, IPBES, PECS, UNESCO-MAB .

24. Further simplification of production systems, crops and varieties, landscapes and food systems. No longer a viable option.

25. Instability in food prices, periodic health and food safety problems, growing demand for more diverse healthier locally sourced foods.

27. innovation, and create new ways of producing food

28. linking to agriculture to consumers that promote healthier food and healthier agroecosystems

29. build on synergies among crop varieties, species and breeds, wild and cultivated spaces

30. foster a culture of renewed innovation and custodianship of bio-cultural diversity

32. Linking food security, environment, culture, and markets

33. How significant is our target and our potential impact if we focus on small family farms practicing diversified bio-intensive agriculture?

35. Population growth will be in developing countries that will need to double their production of food

36. the agricultural model to achieve this is increasing intensification and higher yielding crops and livestock systems.

37. Do agricultural systems and food system for future global food and nutrition security have to be the same as those that have generated instability, declining dietary quality, growing health and safety problems, and rapid depletion of the resource base?

39. US small farms < 27 acres produce 10 times the value in dollar terms per acre of output

40. US small farms have 3 times the number of trees than larger farms – inverse relationship between size and output.

41. Assumptions about the efficiency of large scale farming in the US and UK are being questioned.

43. 1.2 billion people practice low input traditional agriculture on small family farms

44. In Latin America 75 million farmers on small family farms averaging 1.8 hectares in size produce 41% of the food crops consumed locally

45. In Brazil, 85 % of food production is on family farms on 30% of the agricultural land producing 84% of the manioc and 67% of the beans consumed in the country.

49. Cultural practices change rapidly to incorporate new practices and demographic changes, migrations

51. demographic changes, poverty, and marginalisation

52. loss of access to and knowledge of traditional resources, territories, and landscapes

54. Where mosaic landscapes result from application of the unique cosmovison of the community to the land and its products

55. Where communities access and use wild and cultivated biodiversity to maintain their systems and increase flow between the cultivated and the wild.

56. Where food cultures and local food systems provide the potential for food sovereignty

58. Farmers Develop and Adapt Crops to Niches in their Ecosystems

59. Karen rotational farming system (northern Thailand)

60. Cultural Adaptation to Difficult Environments Increases Biodiversity: Arab and Berber peoples in desert oases maintain drought resistant plant varieties and plant communities around a key species, the date palm(Phoenix dactilefera)

63. RestoringTropicalAgriculturethroughproductsfromBiosphereReserves

64. Conservation and Use of Taro

65. Whose food culture? Taking taro out of its bio-cultural landscape Taro in Laiyang China, intensive cultivation of single cultivar for export as high-value product. Not much diversity for taro or people

66. BIOSPHERE RESERVES, Centers of Crop Domestication and Crop Genetic Resources, and Innovation Elaeisguineensis (var. drura) ; Bixagos MAB Reserve Mangrove Rice (salt and flood tolerant) Wild peanut, Arachisspp MAB reserves Bolivia Wild yam,Dioscorea, MAB reserve W- burkina, Niger, Benin Nuts and Fruit trees Juglans. Malus, Pyrus, Morus, SaryChelek MAB Reserve Kyrgyzstan

67. Indicators to measure the resilience of social-ecological systems

68. Bio-cultural research on agricultural innovation Research on the unique agroecological knowledge of indigenous cultures (ethnoscience) places placed agriculture within a traditional society’s cosmovision of the natural world. Harold Conklin, Hanunoo Agriculture (1957) and the Ethnographic Atlas of Ifugao (1980) Prof. Sadao Sakamoto’s work that linked culture to the evolution crop genepools in rice and tropical root crops. The glutinous starch trait in domestication and evolution of starchy staples. Kyoto University plant geneticist Audrey Richards andElinorOrstrom: Institutions for food security and productive landscapes

69. Kwaheri