Krystyna Swiderska
Principal researcher (agriculture and biodiversity), Natural Resources
Krystyna Swiderska's areas of expertise are traditional resource rights and biodiversity governance. She is also researching the potential role of genetic resources and traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation.
She currently working on the protection of the traditional knowledge, bi-cultural heritage and customary law of indigenous and local communities. She is also researching access to genetic resources and the equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources (as set out by the Nagoya Protocol). Her work has a particular focus on India, China, Peru, Kenya and Panama.
Traditional resource rights and biodiversity governance
Research on the protection of traditional knowledge, bio-cultural heritage and customary law of indigenous and local communities; access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing and the Nagoya Protocol; biodiversity governance; and the role of genetic resources and traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation. Country focus: India, China, Peru, Kenya and Panama.
English, French and Spanish
Krystyna Swiderska's blog posts
Our survey found broad support for a labelling scheme for biocultural heritage-based products. Now we need to get a pilot project off the ground.
The Paris Agreement commits governments to climate action. To deliver this agenda successfully, they must engage with all sectors of society, including indigenous peoples, and recognise traditional knowledge.
Traditional knowledge combined with the latest science could increase food production while safeguarding biodiversity, new research shows.
The film "Planting for Change" tells the story of how farmers in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces have responded to climatic adversity by using their own innovations and biocultural heritage – and by improving this heritage by working with scientists on participatory plant breeding projects.
Indigenous knowledge is innovative, not static, says Krystyna Swiderska. Protecting it will help food security.
As delegates gather for the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in Hyderabad India (8-19 October), this photostory remembers some of the difficulties facing people who live in biodiversity-rich areas and looks at why two different communities have developed community protocols.
Two safeguards for communities' rights to resources can help implement the Nagoya Protocol.
Community Protocols are a vital way forward for negotiating agreements that are equitable, and conserve their local biodiversity and traditional knowledge.
These were Ban Ki-moon’s words at the opening of the annual meeting of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York, 16th May 2011.