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Dernière version (finale) de l'article (4). Paru le 7 janvier 2014 sur le site de la Revue d'ethnoécologie. Numéro intitulé: Le palmier dattier: Origine et culture en Égypte et au Moyen-Orient/ The Date Palm: Origin and Cultivation in the Middle East and in Egypt; International audience; The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is certainly the key plant of the oasian ecosystem of Siwa, the only Berber oasis of Egypt, in the Libyan Desert. Nevertheless, its present-day agrobiodiversity still deserves careful study. The agrodiversity of this cultivated plant cannot be addressed without taking into account the local horticultural practices and local ways of categorizing the living. This paper presents the first results of this research. If there is broad consensus on the local Berber names to be used for each part of the plant morphology, establishing a list of the different landraces of date palm in Siwa, in contrast, is far more difficult. It was necessary to clarify the local categorization of this plant and its cultivars. This brought to light two facts: the first, quantitative, is that about fifteen or so named types (cultivars and ethnovarities) exist; the second, qualitative, is that locally the shape does matter, genes matter little. In other words, the resemblance makes the identity, and this has implications on the richness of this resource. To reckon the evolutions of the agrobiodiversity, I had to go through all the literature written about Siwa (since the end of the 18th century) evoking the local named types of the date palm. Combining ethnography with historical analysis of the literature on Siwa points to a quite stable agrobiodiversity over this period. This work also suggests that the local community made some early choices to move not towards a self-sufficient oasis economy, but an economy focused on the export of products of a few elite cultivars. Siwa, with its multi-species cropping system, was perhaps not after all a lost oasis in the sands of the Libyan Desert. This paper is the first step of a two-stage work; the second, within an interdisciplinary research project, will examine samples of these date palms through morphometry of seeds and genetic structure of landrace populations to deepen the analysis of the date palm agrobiodiversity in Siwa, at the North African and Middle Eastern crossroads.; Le palmier dattier (Phoenix dactylifera L.) est certes la plante clef de l'écosystème oasien de Siwa, l'unique oasis berbère d'Égypte, dans le désert libyque, mais son agrobiodiversité restait mal étudiée et probablement mal comprise. La diversité de cette plante cultivée ne peut être abordée sans s'attacher à l'étude des pratiques horticoles locales et des façons locales de catégoriser le vivant. Cet article présente les premiers résultats de cette recherche. S'il existe un large consensus local sur les noms berbères locaux employés pour désigner chaque partie de la plante, en revanche, l'établissement d'une liste des différents types nommés du palmier dattier à Siwa est beaucoup plus difficile. Clarifier la catégorisation locale de cette plante et de ses cultivars a été nécessaire, mettant au jour deux données : la première, quantitative, est qu'il existe une quinzaine de types nommés (cultivars et ethnovariétés) ; la seconde, qualitative, est que localement les gènes importent peu, la forme si. Autrement dit, des formes identiques de palmier font identité, ce qui n'est pas sans conséquence sur la richesse de cette ressource. Pour estimer les évolutions de cette agrobiodiversité, j'ai eu à traiter toute la littérature écrite sur Siwa (depuis la fin du xviiie siècle) évoquant les types nommés locaux du palmier dattier. La combinaison du travail ethnographique et de l'analyse historique de ce corpus littéraire sur Siwa semble indiquer que cette biodiversité agricole a été relativement stable au cours de cette période. Ce travail suggère également que cette société oasienne a dû très tôt dans son histoire opter non pour une économie de l'autosuffisance, mais pour une économie articulée sur l'exportation des produits de quelques cultivars d'élite. Siwa, et son système en polyculture, n'était peut-être pas après tout une oasis perdue dans les sables du désert libyque. Cet article présente le premier étage d'une recherche qui en compte deux ; le second, au sein d'un projet interdisciplinaire, sera consacré à l'examen d'échantillons de ces palmiers dattiers par analyse morphométrique des graines et de la structure génétique de ces types nommés pour approfondir l'analyse de l'agrobiodiversité des dattiers de Siwa, au carrefour de l'Afrique du Nord et du Proche-Orient.

Conference on Sustainable Diet and Food Security, 2013/05/28-29, Lille (France); International audience; The stark observation of the co-existence of undernourishment, nutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity, the triple burden of malnutrition, is inviting us to reconsider health and nutrition as the primary goal and final endpoint of food systems. Agriculture and the food industry have made remarkable advances in the past decades. However, their development has not entirely fulfilled health and nutritional needs, and moreover, they have generated substantial collateral losses in agricultural biodiversity. Simultaneously, several regions are experiencing unprecedented weather events caused by climate change and habitat depletion, in turn putting at risk global food and nutrition security. This coincidence of food crises with increasing environmental degradation suggests an urgent need for novel analyses and new paradigms. The sustainable diets concept proposes a research and policy agenda that strives towards a sustainable use of human and natural resources for food and nutrition security, highlighting the preeminent role of consumers in defining sustainable options and the importance of biodiversity in nutrition. Food systems act as complex social–ecological systems, involving multiple interactions between human and natural components. Nutritional patterns and environment structure are interconnected in a mutual dynamic of changes. The systemic nature of these interactions calls for multidimensional approaches and integrated assessment and simulation tools to guide change. This paper proposes a review and conceptual modelling framework that articulate the synergies and tradeoffs between dietary diversity, widely recognised as key for healthy diets, and agricultural biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions, crucial resilience factors to climate and global changes.

International audience; This paper attempts to understand conceptual models on which knowledge and management practices of traditional crop diversity are based and whether these models collide with the knowledge formalized in institutions for agricultural development, or complete them. The originality of the approach is to deal not with knowledge as a body of operational data but with their social meaning and values. It is from this understanding and recognition of mutual contributions of different forms of knowledge that a symmetry of exchange between actors can be considered. The example investigated is that of the slash-and-burn agriculture of the Rio Negro, in the north-western Brazilian Amazon.

International audience; Local norms and practices about perception and management of agrobiodiversity are seen as a biologic cum cultural heritage. How can they be articulated with Brazilian recent juridical norms on biodiversity and traditional knowledge? In this paper, we develop a methodological approach for interdisciplinary study of agrobiodiversity in multiple scales (domestic unit, village, region). We offer some results of its application on the mid-Rio Negro region, in a pluriethnic context. The agricultural system is based on slash and burn pratices in a low density area. Three study areas were chosen : two of them are forest villages and one is an urban area (7,000 inhabitants).). Agricultural diversity was studied with 4, 5 and 9 families respectively The results show a broad agrobiodiversity (243 cultivated plants and 73 varieties of manioc for 18 families). Under current conditions, this diversity is maintained in the urban area as well. We stress the different plant collections managed by each woman agriculturalist. Such high diversity is linked to an extremely active and wide circulation of plants between spaces and people in different scales. Resources were socially and geographically mapped, and they showed a flux that extends 500 km up as well as 500 km down river. However, most of these exhanges take place in the village and its vicinity and are associated with kinship. In town, the flux is determined by neighborhood and economic factors rather than by family links. In both cases, plant circulation takes place outside of agricultural development institutions, markets and economic relations. They belong to a larger system of exchange in which phytogenetic resources are not individually owned. Furthermore, agricultural diversity is related to a very rich handicraft culture and to a complex food system. Finally, we argue that legal tools currently being built in Brazil around phytogenetic resources are not conducive to the preservation and valorisation of an agricultural system which produces diversity such as the one we describe the mid-Rio Negro region. As things stand now, registering that system as cultural heritage could provide a better acknowledgement of its worth, give it visibility and ensure its conservation.; La question posée est d'identifier comment les normes et pratiques locales de perception et gestion de l'agrobiodiversité s'articulent aux instruments juridiques de conservation et valorisation de la biodiversité et savoirs associés récemment mis en place au Brésil. L'article comprend deux volets, une proposition méthodologique pour une approche interdisciplinaire de l'agrobiodiversité et l'application de cette approche à la région du moyen Rio Negro. Les résultats portent sur l'amplitude de la diversité agricole, le rôle fondamental de la circulation des variétés et espèces cultivées dans le maintien d'une diversité élevée, sa dimension culturelle et régionale. En conclusion, nous mettons en regard la construction patrimoniale de l'agrobiodiversité avec les différents instruments de conservation discutés aujourd'hui au Brésil.

This paper presents a review of the litterature on the physiology and diversity of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.). Since about 15 years, this Andean crop experiences a great commercial success in the organic and fair-trade food networks. Selected and cultivated for thousands of years in the Andean highlands, quinoa shows a remarkable tolerance to environmental stresses, particularly to drought and cold. The present knowledges on quinoa physiology, though fragmentary, show a high cold resistance of the plants, and the capacity to recover high photosynthetic activity after drought. Under field conditions, the genetic diversity in local landraces and the crop practices also contribute notably to the adaptation of quinoa to climatic hazards.

Le Parc de la pomme de terre de Pisac, au Pérou, est une initiative locale qui, si elle ne bénéficie d’aucune reconnaissance de la part du gouvernement péruvien, est un exemple important sur la scène internationale de la conservation. Le parc est le creuset de l’émergence d’un modèle de développement alternatif — appelé sumaq kawsay en quechua, que l’on traduit par « bien-vivre » — présenté comme autochtone et comme une proposition alternative à l’ontologie naturaliste ou moderne. Cet article analyse la façon dont ce discours a été formulé, en prenant en compte les différentes arènes dans lesquelles il est mis en exergue. Après avoir présenté en détail la proposition spécifiquement élaborée au sein du Parc de la pomme de terre, l’auteure montre que ce discours est formulé en fonction de dynamiques à l’oeuvre au sein d’un groupe de travail relevant de la Convention sur la diversité biologique. Elle fait voir qu’une organisation non gouvernementale joue dans cette enceinte le rôle de diplomate ontologique et réfléchit à ce que signifie et implique l’exercice de cette diplomatie pour les autres acteurs, tant à l’échelle locale et nationale qu’internationale., The Potato Park in Pisac, Peru, is a globally recognized example of conservation, despite the fact that it is not recognized by the Peruvian government. The park is the birthplace of an alternative development model known as sumaq kawsay, a Quechua expression that is often translated as « well-being. » Sumaq kawsay is often presented as an indigenous alternative to naturalistic or modern ontology. In this paper, the author examines the discourse produced within the Potato Park, and argues that this discourse is the result of dynamics within a working group connected to the Convention on Biological Diversity. She demonstrates that a non-governmental organization is playing the role of an ontological diplomat in this forum and analyzes what the exercise of this diplomacy means and entails for other actors, both locally, nationally and internationally., El Parque de la Papa de Pisac, Perú, es una iniciativa local que, si no ha sido reconocida por parte del gobierno peruano, es un notable ejemplo en el mundo internacional de la conservación. El parque es un crisol de donde ha surgido un modelo de desarrollo alternativo denominado sumaq kawsay en quechua que puede ser traducido como «buen vivir», presentado como indígena y alternativo con respecto a la ontología naturalista o moderna. En el presente texto, analizamos la manera en que ese discurso ha sido formulado, teniendo en consideración las escenas en las cuales ha sido puesto de relieve. Después de presentar detalladamente la proposición específicamente elaborada en el seno del Parque de la Papa, mostraremos que dicho discurso ha sido formulado en función de dinámicas actuantes en el seno de un grupo de trabajo relacionado con la Convención sobre la diversidad biológica. Mostramos que una organización no-gubernamental juega en este terreno el rol de diplomático ontológico y reflexionamos sobre lo que significa e implica el ejercicio de dicha diplomacia para los otros actores tanto a nivel local como nacional e internacional.