Measuring resilience capacity of Indigenous Peoples food systems: what role for agroforestry?

In many Indigenous Peoples' food systems across the world, agroforestry is widely practised and contributes to resilient diets, resilient cultures, and resilient ecosystems. For cultures of Indigenous Peoples to have survived for thousands of years, their ecosystems and food systems, if intact, are then by definition resilient, while recognizing that change and evolution are regularly experienced in natural ecosystems. However, because of globalized food markets, growing populations and climatic pressures, the food systems of most Indigenous Peoples today, even those in very remote rural areas, are increasingly composed of a mixture of traditional local foods and foods purchased from commercial outlets, creating an ever-increasing loss of local biodiversity, dietary quality, and food insecurity for these populations. Understanding how Indigenous Peoples perceive resilience of their food systems and the role of agroforestry in building resilience capacity provides a unique view on food system resilience. The purpose of this article is to: (1) describe the development of a multi-dimensional metric of food system resilience capacity which accommodates local-level measurement in the context of broader national and global scale measures; (2) examine the role of agroforestry in the dimensions of such metric; and (3) propose a process that supports indigenous peoples' self-determination over localized progress toward resilient food systems. We illustrate the construction of the metric using a mix of secondary data and primary data (household surveys, biodiversity inventories and ethnographic research) collected in a case study of Indigenous Peoples' food systems in communities of the Peruvian Amazon. Key results include a framework of indicator themes that are anchored in an Indigenous Peoples' led definition of resilience, stable at national and global scales while remaining flexible at the local scale to accommodate contextual needs. We also propose a process for facilitating community-level planning for food system resilience that utilizes this indicator framework.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Katic, Pamela, Flores Rojas, Maria Ximena, Deheuvels, Olivier, Chichipe Puscan, Ariel Kedy, Jimenez Yoplac, Geidy Yecenia, Mercier, Sabine
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	Université de Laval
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/601958/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/601958/1/ID601958.pdf
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