Indigenous Seed Systems and Biocultural Heritage: The Andean Potato Park’s Approach to Seed Governance

Abstract

In the Indigenous worldview, seeds are both biological entities and embodiments of immateriality: knowledge, culture and the sacred. Indigenous seed systems thus codify the human connection to nature. Yet such ‘informal’ systems, whether developed by Indigenous peoples or small-scale farmers, barely surface in policy debates. Krystyna Swiderska and Alejandro Argumedo seek to redress the balance in this detailed study of the principles, values and practices of Indigenous seed systems and governance. While ranging over a number of case studies from Kyrgyzstan to Kenya, their prime focus is the Andean Potato Park in Cusco, Peru—a world centre of origin and domestication of crops such as the potato, quinoa and amaranth. Swiderska and Argumedo describe the Park’s collective and customary governance structure, and the ways of learning, exchange systems, seed banks and more developed by its Quechua farmers. To safeguard the vital Indigenous contribution to seed security and diversity, they conclude, a biocultural rights-based approach to seed governance is required and needs further support from policy reform, among other measures.

Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems and Biocultural Heritage: Addressing Indigenous Priorities Using Decolonial and Interdisciplinary Research Approaches

“…The terms "biocultural heritage" and "biocultural diversity" have increasingly featured in conservation and heritage discourse, bridging the natural and social sciences and highlighting the role of Indigenous and traditional peoples and subsistence landscapes in conserving biodiversity [27][28][29][30]. In contrast to western conservation paradigms that separate people and nature [31,32], these concepts promote recognition of Indigenous and traditional peoples' rights and responsibilities over their ancestral lands, biodiversity and food heritage [27,28].…”

“…The idea of an "inextricable link between cultural and biological diversity" first arose in the 1988 Declaration of Belem at the first International Congress of Ethnobiology in Brazil, which directly involved Indigenous and traditional peoples [30]. Biocultural heritage encompasses memory, language, history, practices, values and ways of life within a particular territory and ecological context [31]. Similarly, Virtanen (2019) understands the "biocultural heritage" of the Apurinã people in Brazil "in the context of relational ontologies, in which nonhuman entities and the natural environment cannot be separated from being a human".…”

“…However, it is not a substitute for Indigenous Peoples' own philosophies that underpin their food heritage. For example, the Andean Ayllu concept where three Ayllus or communities-the human and domesticated, the wild and the sacred-have to be in balance to achieve wellbeing (Sumaq Causay) [31] (Figure 1); and the Subak cooperative water management system in Indonesia, which is a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy, which brings together the realms of the spirit, the human world and nature [12].…”

“…They also highlighted the need to continue the decolonial Potato Park approach (used in a previous project), where 1-2 community researchers are employed from each village to co-design, facilitate and conduct the research; and Indigenous research methods are used that promote transmission of Indigenous knowledge. This approach has strengthened community research capacity, inter-village networks and livelihoods [39][40][41].…”

“…This paper also presents a framework for decolonial and interdisciplinary research on Indigenous food systems past and present, from farm to plate, which can inform the design of future research and equitable partnerships. The framework is based on the AHRC workshops and also draws on the decolonising action-research approach used in the Potato Park, Peru [18], and interdisciplinary research on Nubian crops and food systems past and present [19,20], integrating ethnobotany, oral histories and archaeobotany.…”