Interviews with SIFOR farmers at UNFCCC COP20
08 Dec 2014
In this short film, smallholder farmers from India, Kenya and Peru explain the challenges they face due to climate change, and how they are responding.
News and blogs
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.
Film documents visit to "Guardians of Diversity" in the Potato Park
11 Nov 2014
A new 15 minute film documents a gathering of indigenous farmers from mountain communities around the world to exchange knowledge and ideas about protecting biodiversity and culture as the basis for adapting to climate change.
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.
Photo Essay: Indigenous Farmers Gather in the Andes to Plan for Climate Change
26 Aug 2014
These photos document a gathering of indigenous groups from China, Bhutan, and Peru. They met in the spring to discuss climate change and plan a crop exchange program.
First published on August 18, by Adam Kerby in YES! Magazine.
Why are indigenous people sidelined at UN climate talks?
26 Aug 2014
Indigenous people have the solutions to climate change. They should be allowed to speak out at the UN climate talks.
First published on 29 July, by Alejandro Argumedo in Responding to Climate Change (RTCC).
China’s declining crop diversity threatens its food sovereignty
10 Apr 2014
Modern breeding techniques, GM crop imports and commercial seeds mean that many of China’s local varieties are under threat
What is “Biocultural Heritage” and “Biocultural Innovation”?
27 Mar 2014
Article in Langscape Magazine explores these concepts in the context of the SIFOR project.
Small-Scale Farmers' Innovation Overlooked In WIPO Negotiations, Panellists Say
07 Feb 2014
A side event hosted by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) this week called on negotiators at the World Intellectual Property Organization to include innovation by small-scale farmers and asked for complementarity of several international instruments dealing with this issue.
Smallholder innovations support adaptation in coastal Kenya
03 Dec 2013
Local newspaper reports on the innovations identified by SIFOR project communities in Kilifi and Kwale counties.
Biodiversity meeting affirms key role of traditional knowledge in implementing UN biodiversity convention
31 Oct 2013
The meeting of the Working Group on Article 8(j) in Montreal (7-11 October), reaffirmed the need to recognize and integrate traditional knowledge systems of indigenous and local communities into the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Patent-like claims on native potatoes spark protest by Peru's indigenous farmers
26 Sep 2013
Peruvian indigenous farmers have been angered by a government research agency that has claimed it owns intellectual property (IP) rights over more than fifty traditional varieties of potatoes bred in the Peruvian Andes.
The seed treaty must no longer allow the stealing of seeds from peasants
25 Sep 2013
This week, from 24 to 28 September, witnesses the opening in Oman of the Fifth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, also known as the seed treaty.
Indian scientists recognise the need to conserve landraces and support local knowledge systems
13 Sep 2013
On 24th July 2013, the first SIFOR stakeholder workshop in the Central Himalayas brought together over 100 participants - leading scientists, local farmers, state governments and NGOs.
Biocultural Heritage performs vital functions
Resilient farming, adaptation and food security
WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organisation
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) aims to promote intellectual property rights (IPRs) worldwide. In 2000, it established an inter-governmental committee to address IPR issues relating to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, including how to protect traditional knowledge from misappropriation and how to share benefits from commercialisation equitably.
Drivers of change
We are facing a double extinction crisis - biological and cultural - as a result of prevailing development models and globalization.
The FAO estimates we have lost three quarters of all crop genetic resources in the past 100 years. Modern farming, based on just a few species and varieties, has spread across the globe, weakening agriculture’s genetic basis and our capacity to adapt to changing climates. Yet policymakers often see traditional farming systems rich in genetic diversity as a hindrance to economic growth.