Global Information System

Number of records: 233

136) Recognition of farming communities through Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

Since 2005, the Agricultural Planning, Economic and Rural Development Research Institute (APERDRI), a public research institute under the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the provincial local government units, farming communities and the World Agricultural Heritage Foundation (WAHF), have engaged in identifying Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in Iran. The overall goal of GIAHS is to mobilize global recognition and national support for farmers’ and indigenous communities’ contributions to safeguarding and dynamically conserving agricultural biodiversity and their goods and services. In the course of the identification process, farming systems are assessed based on five criteria, including their contributions to (1) food and livelihood security; (2) biodiversity for food and agriculture ; (3) local and traditional knowledge systems; (4) culture, value systems and social organization; and (5) remarkable landscapes features. Farming systems that pass the assessment can be recognized as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Iran is a country with a long history of agricultural civilization; to date, three traditional agriculture: Saffron Qanat-based Agricultural Heritage System; Pomegranate Qanat irrigated Agricultural Heritage System; and MA layer Grape Production, are recognized as GIAHS sites.

Category: 1.Recognition of local and indigenous communities’, farmers’ contributions to conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, such as awards and recognition of custodian/guardian farmers

Type of measure/practice: Technical; Others

137) Declaration of the territory of the Cotacachi canton, Ecuador, as cultural heritage for agrobiodiversity

The declaration of the territory of the Cotacachi canton, Ecuador, as cultural heritage for agrobiodiversity was started in 2010 and accomplished in 2014, following years of preparatory work done by the Unión de Organizaciones Campesinas e Indígenas de Cotacachi (UNORCAC), an association of farmers’ and indigenous peoples’ organizations, in collaboration with the Municipal Government of Cotacachi. The main objective is to promote agrobiodiversity conservation, along with related traditional knowledge and ancestral practices, as a strategy to defend collective economic, social and cultural rights of the indigenous communities of Cotacachi. Core components include the declaration of the territory as cultural heritage for agrobiodiversity and approval of a safeguard plan. The latter supports research and monitoring of agrobiodiversity; restitution of local seeds; training for seed producers and seed exchange fairs; marketing of agrobiodiversity products, valorization of traditional cuisine and gastronomic fairs; value addition to native crops; as well as awareness building and educational activities. Lessons learned include that actions taken should be led by participating peasant organizations; there should be a clear priority on farmers’ needs, especially needs of women farmers; furthermore, cooperation with research organizations is essential; research should have a direct and immediate relationship with farmers' needs.

Category: 1.Recognition of local and indigenous communities’, farmers’ contributions to conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, such as awards and recognition of custodian/guardian farmers

Type of measure/practice: Technical; Administrative

138) Smallholder farmers’ capacity building on community seed banking

Seed Savers Network-Kenya (SSN-Kenya) is a national grassroots farmers’ organization dedicated to promoting food and seed sovereignty. SSN-Kenya safeguards plant genetic materials through on-farm seed saving, community seed banks, and field genebanks for agrobiodiversity conservation. It has a network of over 50,000 farmers across five counties in Kenya, including Nakuru, Nyandarua, Kiambu, Baringo, and Kakamega in seed saving at farm level, ecological Agriculture, capacity building, community biodiversity register (CBR), open-source seed system (OSSS) and Advocacy for food sovereignty. In its12 years of existence, more than 60 000 small-scale farmers have been trained and empowered in crop diversification using locally available seeds and soil fertility amendments. SSN-Kenya has established 100 community seed banks in different villages of Kenya, where each seed bank covers at least 600 people in a village. Through their various capacity-building activities for the farmers, they saved more than 300 varieties of seeds that may have been lost. More importantly, they improved the food supply to more than 20 000 households and thus lower food insecurity cases while improving health through consumption of more nutritious diets from their farms.

Category: 9.Training, capacity development and public awareness creation

Type of measure/practice: Technical

139) General regime on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS)

In order to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol, the French law on Biodiversity (n°2016-1087) has modified of the Environmental Code – Article L. 412-3 and establish¬es rules on access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and sharing of benefits arising from their use. In addition, the EU Regulation No 511/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishes compliance measures under the Nagoya Protocol. The Ministry of Ecology is the competent authority receiving any application for accession to traditional knowl¬edge associated with genetic resources. French law also applies directly to the five ‘overseas’ departments (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Mayotte, La Reunion) and to Saint-Martin and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon; and partially to some other territories, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Currently, processes are underway to establish procedures for consultation with ‘communities of inhabitants’ or ‘resident communities’, which can be any community of inhabitants who traditionally derive their livelihood from the natural environment and whose way of life is of interest for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Benefit-sharing can include measures for the preservation of traditional knowledge related to PGRFA of the communities concerned, with their prior informed consent.

Category: 10.Legal measures for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights, such as legislative measures related to PGRFA.

Type of measure/practice: Administrative; Legal

140) Implementation of farmers’ rights through the recognition of farmers’ seeds and provisions made for a discreet farmer seed system registration process, not linked to commercial seed and crop value chains

In 2003, the Brazilian government passed a Seed Law- Lei 10.711 Dispõe sobre o Sistema Nacional de Sementes e Mudas e dá outras providências that recognized farmer’s seed emanating from farmer-managed seed systems. According to this law, registration of local, traditional or Creole cultivars used by family farmers, Agrarian Reform settlers or indigenous peoples is not mandatory (Article 11.6) and there are exemptions for those who multiply seeds or seedlings for distribution, exchange or sell among themselves. The exemptions are for all farmers’ seed as long as they are traded and exchanged among family farmers (Article 8.3). Where farmers choose to register their seed in Brazil, several requirements are given by the Ministerial Decision 51/2007. Since the farmers’ seed sector is recognized as important and indispensable towards the attainment of food security, the national government launched the Food Acquisition Programme in 2003, which included the purchase and dissemination of farmer seed that was directly purchased from and distributed to farmers. This state support created a big incentive for local producers, especially family farmers, agrarian reform settlements and indigenous communities and populations, and it recognised the seed production protocols and activities of these communities. To further support the farmers’ seed sector, the Ministry of Agrarian Development supported seed fairs to promote the multiplication of local seeds.