CULTURAL IDENTITY AND CONSERVATION OF INDIGENOUS AND NATIVE DIVERSITY

Abstract

The economic development of rural areas has rarely followed that of urban centres, with greater evidence of this in developing countries where the outlying communities have remained considerably more remote from the systems of cultural and economic growth. Even if this has had negative repercussions in terms of social equilibrium within the various countries, from a strictly agronomic point of view it has often resulted in the natural conservation of indigenous and native biodiversity. This has been affected by the natural and daily use of local plant extracts both for nutritional purposes and for a variety of other reasons. The exchange of genetic material between one community and another, often a sign of respect and friendship, has helped to increase plant diversity and to enhance its role in the everyday diet of rural populations. Any activity aimed at conserving biodiversity cannot disregard the fact that native plant species (and even more indigenous species) now play a vital role in the cultural identity of rural communities, and that making such communities aware of this precious asset can also play a strategic part in the idea of promoting biological diversity as a way of developing local economies. Such evidence clearly emerged through the various activities conducted in the context of the project, FAO GTF/RAF/426/ITA Promoting Origin-linked Quality Products in Four Countries in West Africa, financed by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity Onlus. This project, conducted in 4 West African countries (Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Mali), aimed to carry out a study of these 4 states and draw up an inventory of the traditional plant and animal species, to examine the link between these and the diet of rural populations, and to assess the risks of genetic erosion by actions to safeguard the native biodiversity.