BioKultDiv-Biocultural diversity in farming landscapes of the Global South

The project will systematically assess how biocultural diversity is linked with indicators of sustainability and how fostering biocultural diversity can contribute to transformations towards more sustainable futures.

Project description

Bio­cul­tu­ral di­ver­si­ty (BCD), that is the di­ver­si­ty of life in all its ma­ni­fes­ta­ti­ons, is de­cli­ning at an un­pre­ce­den­ted speed. Alar­mingly, this loss goes hand in hand with many bio­phy­si­cal and so­cio- eco­no­mic chan­ges that are un­sustainable, and the­re is an ur­gent need to un­der­stand and pro­mo­te trans­for­ma­ti­ve pa­thways towards sustaina­bi­li­ty. Whi­le pre­vious stu­dies on bio­cul­tu­ral di­ver­si­ty have main­ly fo­cu­sed on the in­ven­to­ry and con­ser­va­ti­on of exis­ting di­ver­si­ty, this pro­ject will as­sess how BCD is lin­ked to in­di­ca­tors of sustaina­bi­li­ty and how it can cont­ri­bu­te to more sustainable fu­tures.

To that end, we will first re­view the exis­ting li­te­ra­tu­re on the to­pic and re­flect on the con­cept and its links with sustaina­bi­li­ty. Se­cond, we will em­pi­ri­cal­ly as­sess how BCD is lin­ked to in­di­ca­tors of sustaina­bi­li­ty in a case stu­dy in Bo­li­via and which go­ver­nan­ce me­cha­nisms it be­ne­fits from. This will be rea­li­zed through in­ter- and trans­di­sci­pli­na­ry re­se­arch that ta­kes into ac­count as­pects re­la­ted to en­vi­ron­men­tal jus­ti­ce, well­being and gen­der in the case stu­dy area. Third, we will as­sess how BCD can cont­ri­bu­te to sustaina­bi­li­ty in other far­ming land­scapes of the Glo­bal South through a set of sta­ke­hol­der work­shops. The pro­ject will ge­ne­ra­te a ho­lis­tic un­der­stan­ding of how bio­cul­tu­ral di­ver­si­ty can cont­ri­bu­te to sustaina­bi­li­ty. The fin­dings of the stu­dy will be wi­de­ly com­mu­ni­ca­ted to lo­cal com­mu­nities, aca­de­mia and na­tio­nal and in­ter­na­tio­nal sta­ke­hol­ders.

Partner organizations:

Fundacion Tierra, Bolivia; Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Germany; Bioversity International

Project duration: 5 ye­ars (June 2019- May 2024)

Funding: fun­ded by the Ger­man Fe­deral Mi­nis­try for Edu­ca­ti­on and Re­se­arch (BMBF)

Led by

Dr. Jan Hanspach (Leuphana University of Lüneburg)