L’avenir de la conservation des plantes cultivées à la ferme : intérêt des approches bioculturelles de la conservation

Abstract

The article focuses on the modernist framework of crop diversity conservation as it was set up in the early 20th century. It shows and analyses its effects, particularly on the category of on-farm conservation that unfolded in the late 1980s. The political and legal arsenal that was deployed following the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity focused on essentially incentive-based measures that rest on two theoretical premises that are debatable: the intentionality of farmers around conservation and the collective action of farmers within farmers seed networks. The paper proposes to replace this modernist framework with so-called «biocultural» approaches, which link biological diversity with cultural diversities and promote measures that are more respectful of peasant and indigenous lifestyles when they are part of an integrated human rights approach. We illustrate this with recent initiatives – Biocultural community protocols, Territories and areas conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities, and Globally important agricultural heritage systems – that build on the concept of “biocultural heritage” and from which we draw the criteria for a bundle of rights needed to maintain the role of small-scale farmers in the conservation of crop diversity on farm.

Keywords

• On-farm conservation
• Crop diversity
• Biocultural approaches
• Biocultural rights
• Incentive-based policies
• Farmers seed networks