Abstract
Rural development policies today include significant directions towards ecological transition and sustainability. Biodiversity plays a fundamental role, especially in fragile environments. The North African oases, for example, are socio-ecological structures with delicate balances in terms of natural resources, where the activation of participatory conservation approaches appears today to be very useful, aiming at long-lasting results. This type of approach was applied in the oasis of El Hamma, in Tunisia. The socio-ecological analysis was carried out through semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders of the oasis. The results were used to activate focus groups and to identify, in a participatory way, a conservation strategy for the species and the varieties at risk of erosion or disappearing. From this research, a wide spread of non-traditional date palm and vegetables emerged in a very diverse social context. These products were recognized as highly significant in terms of traditional knowledge by all stakeholders. Therefore, a Maison des semences and a public conservation center for perennial species were created, representing the first step of a participatory conservation model. Seeds of 11 traditional annual species, 10 date palm varieties and, in perspective, many other fruit species and vegetable varieties have been introduced into conservation.
Highlights
Biodiversity is the variety of living beings that inhabit the Earth, and is measured at the level of genes, species, populations and ecosystems [1]
Agricultural biodiversity, or agrobiodiversity, has been defined by FAO as a subset of biodiversity [2], and with the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Agriculture and Food of 2001 [3], it explicitly became the part of biodiversity directly involved in agriculture and food production that depends on human actions, both positive and negative
Brush [8] perceives crop genetic resources as the result of collective action by people sharing knowledge, often living in communities in close contact with plant and animal resources, exchanging seeds and accumulating valuable traits in different crop populations. This agrobiodiversity has accompanied the lives of rural communities, especially when distant from urbanized areas, contributing significantly to the development of models that stem from the strong link between farmers and rural areas [9]
Summary
Biodiversity is the variety of living beings that inhabit the Earth, and is measured at the level of genes, species, populations and ecosystems [1]. Brush [8] perceives crop genetic resources as the result of collective action by people sharing knowledge, often living in communities in close contact with plant and animal resources, exchanging seeds and accumulating valuable traits in different crop populations. This agrobiodiversity has accompanied the lives of rural communities, especially when distant from urbanized areas, contributing significantly to the development of models that stem from the strong link between farmers and rural areas [9]. Reduction in the use of synthetic chemical products Fertilization Weed control
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