Safeguarding local crop knowledge: the use of community biodiversity registers

This brief presents suggestions for the design and use of a community biodiversity register as a practical tool for communities to: (i) establish an inventory to allow monitoring of crop diversity and to document its associated farmer (traditional) knowledge, (ii) generate a collective sense of community empowerment and ownership of genetic resources as a way to decentralize their management and conservation, and (iii) provide a record of the knowledge and uses of local biodiversity that can prevent biopiracy and enable the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. Examples from Nepal and South Africa are given.