Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"

Relations between agrobiodiversity and diversity of livelihood strategies in the micro-catchment of the Chimborazo River, Ecuador

Due to increasing concern over the loss of biological and cultural diversity, a new transdisciplinary research field arose in the eighties, goal of which was to research the biocultural diversity given in a certain region. One of the main claims of this new research field is that biological and cultural diversity can only be protected as a whole and not isolated from each other. In fact, studies have shown spatial correlations between the biological and cultural diversity (expressed through ethnolinguistic groups) at a global level and within continents and countries.

Object of this thesis is to analyze biocultural diversity at a local level in the micro-watershed of the Chimborazo River, Ecuador. This area was chosen since the BioAndes research program, which has the objective to enhance the sustainable use of biodiversity in the Andean region of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador through economic, social, cultural and political valorization of biodiversity, has already generated a lot of information about biocultural aspects of this region. In contrast to research on a large scale, the number of languages occurring in the Chimborazo province can not be taken as indicator to distinguish different cultural groups. Besides, there were no spatial data available about local biodiversity. This means that other criteria had to be found to investigate the biocultural relations.

The methods used in this thesis were a revision of existing literature and data about cultural diversity and biocultural practices in the Chimborazo Province, field observations, questionnaires and the geographical information system (Arc GIS).

To understand the complex biocultural dynamics at local level, it is necessary to know about historical, political, social, cultural and economic processes which have lead to the actual situation. Based on this knowledge, there were analyzed the relations of livelihood strategies with the cultivated agrobiodiversity to find out if different livelihood strategies influence on the cultivated diversity of potato varieties.

Results show that there is no clear interrelation between livelihood strategies and agrobiodiversity. But there were observed a variety of processes which have an impact on the biocultural relations. Households with a broader variety of economical strategies such as migration or wage labor show a tendency to maintain a smaller number of potato varieties. Households which sell a higher amount of harvested potatoes on the markets maintain more genetically improved than local varieties of potatoes, which means a loss of traditional diversity of potatoes.

As a conclusion, a broader diversification of livelihood strategies, which often is the consequence of having little cropland to feed a whole family, results in a livelihood strategy that loses the connection with the ground and the local biodiversity.

        
         Photo 1: Potato fields in the vulnerable páramo ecosystem, comunidad Chimborazo

                           
Photo 2: Community members working on a field in the background. Foreground: The breeding of livestock as a livelihood strategy in the study area has been rising in the past decades.

Addresses:

North:

Oliver Rutz                                                             
Talweg 13
3013 Bern
E-Mail: oliver.rutz@students.unibe.ch

Dr. Stephan Rist
Centre for Development and Environment
University of Berne
Institute of Geography
Hallerstrasse 10
CH-3012 Berne
Switzerland
E-Mail: Stephan.Rist@cde.unibe.ch

Partner Organization in the South:

María Argüello
Coordinadora Nacional de Ecuador
Programa Regional BioAndes
Fundación EcoCiencia
Francisco Salazar E14-34 y la Coruña
Quito
E-Mail: marguello@ecociencia.org