Home gardens as strategies for in situ conservation in Cuba, Ghana, Vietnam, Guatemala, Venezuela and Nepal. This project has been  used as a
CBD Case Study

RESEARCH AREAS

Microenvironments

Home Gardens Project
Date Palm Diversity and Oasis Management
Biospheres

Ethnobotany

Linking indigenous knowledge, gender and nutrition studies to increase the value of underutilized crops.

Community Management of Agrobiodiversity & Participatory Approaches

CBM Homepage

Economics 

BioEcon: Diversity on Farms as Economies Develop

Traditional Resource Rights

Andean Community Biodiversity Protection Frameworks 
Land Tenure and PGR in Central Asia 

Gender

The Role of Women in Conservation of Maize Genetic Resources in Guatemala                          Women Farmers and Andean Seeds                    CGIAR's Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA)
Collaboration with FAO (Gender and PGR Management)

Indigenous Knowledge

IK Journal

Nutrition

  Current Activities
  IPGRI Nutrition Strategy

Livelihoods and Institutions Bibliographies  

Landscape and         Ecology Approaches 

Traditional knowledge

The relationship between the conservation of plant genetic resources and their use is an intimate one.  On-farm, in situ and community-level conservation have become integral to the conservation of plant genetic resources, and therefore social and cultural factors such as decision-making patterns, local institutions, indigenous knowledge and value systems must be taken into account.

IPGRI's Livelihood and Institutions theme focuses on the various ways people use and value genetic resources and how this affects their conservation. There are two main objectives: 

• Enhancing the contribution of plant genetic resources to the livelihoods and well-being of the rural poor, by understanding and protecting these essential biological assets in their environments;

• Formulating decentralized methods for the use and conservation of plant genetic resources that involve resource users and local communities.

Some key premises underpin these research and collaborative activities:

(1) Building support for effective national genetic resources programmes depends on a better understanding of the usefulness and value of genetic resources.

(2) Different patterns of access and use of genetic resources can have a variable effect on the genetic diversity and conservation status of useful plant species.

(3) Socioeconomic and cultural factors which govern variation within and across communities, especially gender, need to be taken into account when designing PGR conservation strategies.

Work is also focused on methodology development to assess the economic value of PGR under diverse conservation and use systems. Initial development of economic theory on PGR valuation is followed by practical studies in the field to quantify the benefits, public and private. 

The project applies scientific approaches that bring the human aspect to the fore. This enable us to identify more of the agro-biodiversity that is managed and used in microenvironments and marginal areas; it also serves to increase the value and conserve the diversity of neglected and underutilized species.  Finally, the project activities help build support for conservation of genetic resources by linking the conservation with the economic, social and cultural development of communities that have managed and maintained high levels of agricultural biodiversity.

IPGRI Project Staff:

• Pablo Eyzaguirre, Senior Scientist, Ethnobotany, Microenvironments and Home Gardens, Gender and Traditional Resource Rights

• Alessandra Giuliani, Associate Scientist, Socioeconomics of Neglected and Underutilised Crops

• Timothy Johns, Nutrition, Honorary Research Fellow, Professor, Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE), Macdonald Campus, McGill University, johns@macdonald.mcgill.ca 

• Menno Keizer, Associate Scientist, Agricultural Economist

• Patrick Maundu, Consultant, Ethno-Botany

• Yasuyuki Morimoto, Associate Scientist, Ethno-Botany

• Tomek De Ponti, Associate Scientist, Economics

• Paul Quek, Scientist, Documentation of Indigenous Knowledge

• Melinda Smale, Senior Economist

• Bhuwon Sthapit, Scientist, Participatory Approaches and Participatory Plant Breeding

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Internet Links

IPGRI Publications

PGR Newsletter Articles

Non-IPGRI Publications

Online journals and resources

Recent Publications

Home Gardens and Agrobiodiversity
Edited by Pablo B. Eyzaguirre and Olga F. Linares

Read about Gardens and In Situ Conservation of PGR