TY - JOUR
T1 - The contribution of traditional agroecological knowledge as a digital commons to agroecological transitions: The case of the CONECT-e platform
AU - Calvet-Mir, Laura
AU - Benyei, Petra
AU - Aceituno-Mata, Laura
AU - Pardo-de-Santayana, Manuel
AU - López-García, Daniel
AU - Carrascosa-García, María
AU - Perdomo-Molina, Antonio
AU - Reyes-García, Victoria
PY - 2018/9/8
Y1 - 2018/9/8
N2 - © 2018 by the authors. Traditional agroecological knowledge (TAeK) refers to the cumulative and evolving body of knowledge, practices, beliefs, institutions, and worldviews about the relationships between a society or cultural group and their agroecosystems. These knowledge systems contribute to maintaining environmental and culturally sensitive food systems and have been considered very relevant for agroecological transitions, or the processes of scaling-up and -out agroecology. However, TAeK's erosion and enclosure threatens its use and reproduction, which in turn might affect TAeK's potential contribution to agroecological transitions. Here, we explore how transforming TAeK, and particularly TAeK on landraces, into a digital commons can contribute to its maintenance and protection, and thus to agroecological transitions. We do so by analyzing the CONECT-e platform, an initiative for digitally storing and sharing TAeK in a participatory way. One year after being launched, CONECT-e has documented 452 geographically distinct landraces from 81 different species. The information shared in this platform is well-structured, clear, and reliable; it thus allows for the replication of the knowledge reported. Moreover, because CONECT-e makes the documented information freely available and protects it with a copyleft license, placing information in this platform could help one face landrace misappropriation issues. CONECT-e, or similar initiatives, could contribute to agroecological transitions via maintaining TAeK under the digital commons framework, making it accessible to all society and avoiding enclosure processes.
AB - © 2018 by the authors. Traditional agroecological knowledge (TAeK) refers to the cumulative and evolving body of knowledge, practices, beliefs, institutions, and worldviews about the relationships between a society or cultural group and their agroecosystems. These knowledge systems contribute to maintaining environmental and culturally sensitive food systems and have been considered very relevant for agroecological transitions, or the processes of scaling-up and -out agroecology. However, TAeK's erosion and enclosure threatens its use and reproduction, which in turn might affect TAeK's potential contribution to agroecological transitions. Here, we explore how transforming TAeK, and particularly TAeK on landraces, into a digital commons can contribute to its maintenance and protection, and thus to agroecological transitions. We do so by analyzing the CONECT-e platform, an initiative for digitally storing and sharing TAeK in a participatory way. One year after being launched, CONECT-e has documented 452 geographically distinct landraces from 81 different species. The information shared in this platform is well-structured, clear, and reliable; it thus allows for the replication of the knowledge reported. Moreover, because CONECT-e makes the documented information freely available and protects it with a copyleft license, placing information in this platform could help one face landrace misappropriation issues. CONECT-e, or similar initiatives, could contribute to agroecological transitions via maintaining TAeK under the digital commons framework, making it accessible to all society and avoiding enclosure processes.
KW - Agri-food system
KW - Agroecology
KW - Agroecosystem
KW - Copyleft license
KW - Enclosure
KW - Erosion
KW - Landrace
KW - Local knowledge
KW - Misappropriation
KW - Social-ecological system
UR - http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3214
U2 - https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093214
DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093214
M3 - Article
VL - 10
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
SN - 2071-1050
M1 - 3214
ER -