International RPD Guest Speaker: Alejandro Argumedo – Potato Park, Cusco-Peru

International Rural Planning and Development Guest Speaker: Alejandro Argumedo – Potato Park, Cusco-Peru

Title of the presentation: “Food Neighbourhoods": Biocultural Planning and Emerging Food Solutions to Climate Crisis in the Andes.

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the Presentation:

Alejandro Argumedo is the Director of the ANDES Association, Cusco, Peru. Agronomist by training, he is currently the coordinator of the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples and a Champion for the Food Forever Initiative.  Mr. Argumedo has also served in various UN expert panels and other relevant bodies in Peru and internationally. He leads diverse indigenous knowledge platforms for protecting and nurturing biodiverse indigenous food systems  and promoting biocultural landscape-based solutions.

The ANDES Association, a based indigenous peoples’ organization, manages the Potato Park. ANDES focuses on action-research with  indigenous organizations at the communal level, promotes the development of adaptive models of indigenous biocultural heritage. This is to support the rights and responsibilities of the communities and strengthen food sovereignty and local sustainability. The “Potato Park,” a Biocultural Heritage Landscape, was established as a “Food Neighborhood” in 2000 and is a locally managed Indigenous Biocultural Territory using the Indigenous Biocultural Heritage Area (IBCHA). The six indigenous communities in the Potato Park are placed in a unique traditional mountain biocultural landscape and rich indigenous agricultural heritage. The area is a primary center of potato’s origin and diversity. The potato, the “flagship specie” is at the forefront of biocultural planning for conservation, restoration and protection of local food for habitat preservation and ecosystem services. Integrated adaptation and mitigation approaches, local rights and sustainable livelihoods are also observed and achieved.

The goal of the Potato Park is to celebrate and foster biodiverse food systems through advancement of indigenous core values epitomized through the paradigm of Sumaq Kausay (Buen Vivir). The Potato Park harbors the largest in-situ collection of native potatoes in the world and has successfully repatriated seeds from international Gene Banks, By implementing a “trans-situ” strategy (integrating in-situ and ex-situ approaches) for plant genetic resources conservation, the potato park has established agrobiodiversity-based microenterprises and developed relational sovereignty approaches to engage in policy with national government and international entities. The potato park has generated inspirational models for up-scaling innovative approaches that support and enhance local food systems, agroecology, biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, political autonomy, and cultural resilience.

For more information please contact Dr. Silvia Sarapura.