Seed exchange networks for agrobiodiversity conservation. An interdisciplinary method for analyzing how local seed systems impact the diversity of domesticated plants.

Informations

Funding country

France

Acronym

NETSEED

URL

-

Start date

5/18/2011

End date

1/1/2014

Budget

-

Fundings

Abstract

This project is a joint effort by nineteen researchers from around the world, led by Doyle McKey at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) in France, with the aim to study and strengthen the management of agrobiodiversity through social networks. It will devise an interdisciplinary method for analyzing how local seed systems and exchange networks impact the diversity of domesticated plants. This project is supported by CESAB, an initiative of the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity – FRB. The conservation of diversity, whether of wild or domesticated organisms, is a central issue in modern evolutionary ecology. Champions of ex situ conservation techniques (i.e. static diversity banking) are being seriously challenged by proponents of in situ conservation, which integrates natural evolutionary dynamics into the conservation process and considers people not solely as sources of perturbations, but also as managers of biodiversity. Because natural habitats have been both locally fragmented and globally mixed through human activities, managing biodiversity now entails controlling the intensity of migration of organisms among localities (Bonin 2008; Rodary 2008). We will study the structure of seed exchange networks (SEENs) among farmers, i.e. the fluxes of ‘seeds’ (generic term for all plant propagation vectors, including true seeds and vegetative propagules). Our general question is to assess how SEEN structure – the significations, directions and intensities of seed fluxes among individuals or groups exchanging seeds, and the distribution of genealogical, sociocultural or geographical distance among these individuals or social entities – impacts agrobiodiversity. Plant biodiversity within agricultural ecosystems is central for food security, dietary diversity, and sustainable farming. A key question is how the diversity of seeds can be maintained. As human activities have fragmented natural habitats, altered agricultural environments, and facilitated global-scale connections, understanding the diffusion of seed genetic resources has become particularly important. The NETSEED research project aims to help farmers in the maintenance of seed flow networks, and thus enable human communities to adapt to the changing cultural, economic and environmental conditions.