Biocultural Heritage

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Biocultural heritage territories film now in Spanish

Annette McGill
30 Aug 2016
A stunning photofilm profiling biocultural heritage territories in Peru, China and India is now available in Spanish.

A photofilm about three biocultural heritage terriritories and their role in conserving biodiveristy and promoting locally determined development is now available in a Spanish language version.

The six-minute film uses stunning photographs to present the Quechua Potato Park in Peru, the Naxi Seed Park in China, and the Lepcha/Limbu Bean Park in India. 

Biocultural heritage territories protect traditional land tenure, preserve fragile ecosystems and rare crops, and enable development that incorporates the knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples. IIED is supporting the development of indigenous biocultural heritage territories as a valuable strategy to enhance food security in the face of climate change.

The film opens with a profile of Peru's Potato Park, which is located in the high Andes. Here, five indigenous Quechua communities protect traditional landscapes and conserve 1,460 types of potato, an important resource for food security and climate adaptation.

The second territory is the Naxi Seed Park, or Stone Village, in the Himalayan foothills of Southwest China. Here indigenous communities use water management systems that date back some 1,300 years, and are setting up a collective farmers' organisation to manage the biocultural territory and protect more than 180 crop varieties, medicinal plants and native wildlife.

In the Eastern Himalayas, India's Bean Park protects an area of exceptional biocultural diversity, with a rich mix of wildlife, flowering plants and food crops. The Bean Park is the ancestral home of some 5,000 ethnic people.

The film highlights the deep importance of traditional practices, spiritual values and collective custodianship in all three territories. Watch the Spanish film above, or on IIED's YouTube channel.

The photofilm was first launched in 2014. It was produced in collaboration with Asociacion ANDES (Peru), the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy (China), and Lok Chetna Manch (India).

The film will be launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawai'i, from 1-10 September, when IIED will be hosting a roundtable on 'Designing a biocultural heritage indication scheme' for labelling products from biocultural heritage territories and helping to generate revenue.

This blog post first appeared on www.iied.org. Please follow this link to view and post comments: 
https://www.iied.org/biocultural-heritage-territories-film-now-spanish