United Nations decision prompts potato celebration in Peru

Peruvian farmers are celebrating this month’s UN decision to declare 2008 the International Year of the Potato by planting the world’s largest collection of different varieties of the crop to showcase a novel approach to conservation that benefits and respects local communities.

They want to highlight the importance of conserving traditional crop varieties in the ground and keeping this biological diversity in the hands of the communities who have nurtured it over generations. And they say their approach could be replicated across the world with other highly diverse crops that are important for local food security.

The farmers are planting a new collection of native potato varieties at the ‘Potato Park’, an innovative collaboration between indigenous communities and the International Potato Center, a globally funded research institute.

By the end of October, when the work is done, the park will have 1,324 varieties of potato.

The park was created in 2005 to protect the genetic diversity of the region's many potato varieties, and the rights of indigenous people to access and use them. It involves six communities in the Sacred Valley of the Incas near the city of Cusco.

"We are very happy with the UN decision and the Peruvian government’s support for it as it recognises the fruits of Mother Earth and our work in protecting her," says Cristóbal Banda Mamani, president of the Potato Park.

The idea that the United Nations is dedicating a year to potatoes may seem bizarre but the crop is one of the four most important in the world. It has 5,500 distinct varieties - 4,000 in its centre of origin, Peru, alone - and is a source of food security and employment for 800 million people worldwide.

The local communities in Peru hope that the International Year of the Potato will prompt efforts to preserve and repatriate from research centres and gene banks the potato varieties that Andean communities developed over more than 8,000 years.

They says this is key because intellectual property rights, neoliberal development models, climate change and genetically modified crops all pose threats to the culture, ecology and livelihoods of Peru’s indigenous communities for whom the potato is more than just a staple crop.

"It is important to repatriate of seeds to their places of origin and return them to the communities who can use them to support local adaptation systems," said Alejandro Argumedo, director of Asociacion ANDES, a nongovernmental organisation that works with indigenous communities in Peru.

"The United Nations has honoured the humble potato in recognition of its global importance as a source of nutrition and livelihoods," he says. "We want to highlight the importance of traditional knowledge systems and customary laws that have allowed this crop to exist and to flourish around the world."

"By not only conserving the genetic variety of the potato, but also conserving the traditions, innovations and knowledge that led to this diversity - what we call bio-cultural heritage - we hope to maintain the unique ecological, social and cultural characteristics of the Andean region."

Michel Pimbert, director of the sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and livelihoods programme at IIED agrees: "The Potato Park is a living example of a system which could inspire a fresh approach to conserving genetic diversity in a dynamic way, that is based on justice and equity, and which respects, protects and preserves the bio-cultural heritage of communities."

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Alejandro Argumedo (ANDES): 00 51 84 245021
Or
Mike Shanahan
Press Officer
International Institute for Environment and Development
Email: mike.shanahan@iied.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 7872 7256
Fax: +44 (0)20 7388 2826

NOTES TO EDITORS

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent, non-profit research institute. Set up in 1971 and based in London, IIED provides expertise and leadership in researching and achieving sustainable development (see: www.iied.org.)
The Association for Nature and Sustainable Development (ANDES) is a non-profit Peruvian indigenous organisation that aims to improve the quality of life of Andean indigenous communities by promoting the conservation and sustainable use of their bio-cultural heritage through rights-based conservation-development approaches. See: http://www.andes.org.pe/

In a 2004 meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization about the production of organic seeds, it was proposed that centres of high crop biodiversity should be considered GMO-free zones to maintain them as in-the-field centres of genetic diversity for the benefit of humanity.

Earlier this year, the Cusco regional government declared the region a GMO-free zone, mainly to protect its most important crop - the potato. See: http://www.iied.org/mediaroom/releases/070720GMpotato.html

In November 2006, the Andean Parliament passed a resolution to declare the countries of the Andean Community (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) free of genetically modified potatoes. The resolution urges governments of the Andean countries to stop any field trial, manipulation and experimentation with genetically modified potatoes to eliminate the risk of loss of genetic variability of potatoes. It also calls for an end to any activity related with propagation in the environment, commercial use, transportation, use, commercialisation and production of GM Potato, inside the Andean Community.
See http://www.comunidadandina.org/ingles/sai/estructura_6.html for information on the Andean Parliament.