Biocultural Heritage

Promoting resilient farming systems and local economies

IIED logo

News and blogs

COP 21: Indigenous spiritual and cultural values to guide climate change adaptation

09 Dec 2015

Respect for the spiritual values and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples is a key component in the response to climate change, as was today asserted by an agreement between the Center for Earth Ethics (CEE) of Union Theological Seminary, the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at Columbia University, and the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Assessments Initiative (IPBCCA) of Asociacion ANDES.

Mountain communities being devastated by extreme climate impacts

Matt Wright
18 Nov 2015
For those mountain communities living at the extreme edges of the world, climate change is already a very real threat. Researchers are calling for vulnerable communities to be given special consideration in the Paris negotiations next month.

Mountain communities rebuild diverse, climate-resilient crops

Matt Wright
06 Oct 2015
The Sustainable Development Goals have been agreed, but for mountain communities around the world this action can't come quickly enough. Climate change is already here, threatening their food security, nutrition and livelihoods.

Climate Change and Mountain Communities Meeting

14 Sep 2015

This week, from 11-18th September, indigenous mountain farmers from 20 communities in 10 countries are meeting in Tajikistan to assess the impacts of climate change and identify responses needed.

New film highlights mountain communities' climate workshop

Matt Wright
18 May 2015
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has released a film showcasing an event where mountain communities discussed the impacts of climate change and how to respond using their biocultural heritage.

China’s Farmer Seed Network

18 Mar 2015

The second annual meeting of China’s “National Farmers’ In-Site Breeding and Seed-Sharing Network” was held on January 11-13 2015, in Guangxi. It brought together farmers from several provinces, leading crop scientists, policy makers and China’s Soybean Industry Association.

New photofilm profiles biocultural heritage territories

13 Nov 2014

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has released a new photofilm profiling indigenous biocultural heritage territories and the role they play in development, conservation and adaptation.

Community Well-being in Biocultural Landscapes

16 Oct 2014

There is a growing recognition that living well must go beyond economic and material plenty to encompass social and spiritual well-being. But what do we understand by these wider aspects of well-being?

Stronger plant variety protection may threaten the right to food

09 Oct 2014

Governments in industrial countries regularly put pressure on developing countries to introduce stringent plant variety protection (PVP) regimes and to adhere to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, without duly considering its consequences on the enjoyment of human rights of vulnerable groups such as small-scale farmers and in particular women.

Pages