Lessons from Indigenous food systems
29 Mar 2022
IIED principal researcher Krystyna Swiderska discussed what can we learn from Indigenous Peoples and their food systems in an online event following the UN Food Systems Summit.
News and blogs
Building resilience through Indigenous food systems
22 Nov 2021
At COP26 in Glasgow, Indigenous Quechua farmers from the Potato Park in Peru and Mijikenda farmers from the Rabai sacred Kaya forest landscape (Kenya) shared their enormous wisdom about resilient crops, farming practices and nutritious foods. Watch a full recording of the event.
Indigenous food systems prove highly resilient during COVID-19
26 Aug 2021
Indigenous Peoples’ local agroecological food systems bring valuable lessons of resilience for policymakers heading to next month’s UN Food Systems Summit.
Why traditional knowledge and Indigenous Peoples’ rights must be integrated across the new global biodiversity targets
16 Aug 2021
Biodiversity policymakers negotiating the new international framework at the upcoming global biodiversity summit (CBD COP15) must ensure traditional knowledge and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) are integrated across all post-2020 targets aimed at saving the world’s biodiversity.
Indigenous food systems, biocultural heritage and agricultural resilience
The aim is to link humanities academics, agriculture researchers and Indigenous peoples to design new interdisciplinary research on Indigenous food systems past and present, from farm to plate, and enhance evidence on the role of Indigenous crops in agricultural resilience.
Indigenous biocultural heritage for sustainable development
This research contributed directly to establishing new biocultural heritage territories through a process building on the successful Potato Park model.
Podcast: Indigenous knowledge, people and nature – all crucial to Kunming
29 Apr 2021
Exploring the concept of Biocultural Heritage, which comes from the lived experience of Indigenous Peoples and is critical to the success of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework up for negotiation in Kunming later this year.
Here's why Indigenous economics is the key to saving nature
13 Apr 2021
Mainstream Western economics is destroying the environment - and the Indigenous knowledge that has conserved nature for millennia.
Biocultural Heritage is entrenched in Mexican law
08 Dec 2020
On 2nd of December, the Mexican Parliament voted unanimously to include the protection of biocultural heritage and promotion of agroecology in Mexico’s Law on Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection.
Indigenous Peoples’ food systems hold the key to feeding humanity
23 Oct 2020
A recent workshop hosted by IIED and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew explored how the way Indigenous Peoples grow and consume food holds answers to the world’s broken food system.
Biocultural heritage territories: key to halting biodiversity loss
23 Sep 2020
A new briefing examines the importance of biocultural heritage territories, whose communities are custodians of biodiversity.
Resilient food systems and COVID-19: lessons for a Just Transition
22 May 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed huge vulnerabilities and inequalities in food systems. They are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change: to droughts, floods, typhoons, sea-level rise – the current locust outbreak in East Africa. But they are also part of the problem, contributing about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and being highly inequitable too. Krystyna Swiderska spells out what needs to change.
Protecting indigenous cultures is crucial for saving the world’s biodiversity
18 Feb 2020
2020 is being hailed as a ‘super year’ for nature, with a series of major international events looking at how we can stop the decline of wildlife and natural ecosystems. IIED’s Krystyna Swiderska argues that saving biodiversity can’t succeed without working to save indigenous cultures.
Biocultural heritage features on environment podcast
23 Aug 2019
Biocultural heritage and indigenous people's capacity for climate adaption were highlighted in the latest Green Heritage Futures podcast, a digital audio programme that focuses on cultural heritage and climate change.
Mountain communities stress the importance of biocultural heritage for global food security
15 Feb 2019
Ahead of an intergovernmental forum on biodiversity and food security, the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples has published a report highlighting the importance of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge for climate adaptation.
The Fourth Learning exchange of the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples, April 2017
05 Dec 2018
This short film provides a glimpse into a 4-day horizontal learning exchange which took place in the Potato Park Peru in April 2017, bringing together representatives of indigenous mountain communities from 11 countries.
Q&A: Women in rural India are nature’s guardians
06 Nov 2018
Reetu Sogani describes the special bond between women in India and the country’s natural resources – a connection that positions them as key preservers and managers of biodiversity. Despite this, women’s voices often go unheard in policies intended to support biodiversity conservation.
Three ‘E’s to guide the post-2020 biodiversity roadmap
06 Nov 2018
Joji Cariño sets out three key principles that could underpin a new biodiversity deal where humans and nature work in harmony – and explains why indigenous peoples and local communities will be key in shaping this deal.
As climate changes, Himalayan farmers return to traditional crops
29 Oct 2018
Traditional crops and innovations are offering farmers in the Himalayan region a way to deal with the challenges of climate change, but there is much work to be done for this to become a truly viable alternative.
Q&A: Why indigenous seed-saving women are the stewards of biodiversity
22 Oct 2018
In the latest in blog in the 'Women champions of biodiversity' series, Krystyna Swiderska discusses how women are sustaining biodiverse farming by combining traditional knowledge and innovation to protect local seed systems.