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Nous allons aborder ici différents aspects des recherches scientifiques sur la biodiversité en nous posant en particulier ces questions : qu’est-ce que la biodiversité ? comment a-t-elle évolué ? pourquoi y a-t-il autant d’espèces sur Terre ? pourquoi certains types de comportements peuvent-ils paraître étonnants, comme la reproduction sexuée ou l’altruisme ? et comment peut-on les expliquer ? Nous examinerons également les graves menaces qui pèsent actuellement sur la biodiversité, ainsi que...

Pour préserver la biodiversité et les nombreux services qu’elle nous rend, nous devons comprendre comment elle s’est formée et quels sont les facteurs jouant sur sa dynamique. La théorie de l’évolution par sélection naturelle offre un paradigme très puissant pour expliquer pourquoi le monde vivant est tel qu’il est, comment la biodiversité se forme, quelle est sa dynamique, et enfin comment les populations arrivent à s’adapter ou non à un environnement changeant. Face à la menace du changement climatique et au déclin rapide de la biodiversité qu’il entraîne, les sciences de l’écologie et de l’évolution sont essentielles pour mesurer l’ampleur de la crise actuelle et ses conséquences sur les sociétés humaines.

Prononcée en 2002 à l’occasion de l’ouverture de la chaire Évolution du climat et des océans, la leçon inaugurale d’Edouard Bard n’a rien perdu de son actualité. Elle nous rappelle que le réchauffement climatique est une préoccupation de longue date d’une partie de la communauté scientifique, qui disposait déjà depuis des décennies de données nombreuses et étayées. À travers une description de l’histoire du climat, l’auteur croise les approches complémentaires de la paléoclimatologie, de l’océanographie et de la géologie pour mieux analyser et contextualiser le réchauffement global que subissent aujourd’hui le climat et les océans. Ce texte précurseur résonne comme un avertissement qui vient faire écho aux préoccupations contemporaines face aux grands enjeux climatiques de notre époque.

Shifting marshlands found in inter-tropical zones known for their distinctive forests, mangroves have now become the subject of increased speculation and communication.

All too often, there is a gulf between biodiversity regulations and the actual practices of local people. As we look to move beyond this rift, recent experiments in New Caledonia offer an instructive example.

For several decades now, intensive agriculture has shown its adverse effects: pollution, deforestation, impoverishment of farming communities, etc. With this in mind, we have much to learn from the traditional techniques used by farmers in the tropical world, which combine trees with crops, forest and agriculture.

A war of figures is raging between sustainable fishing and overfishing. What is the acceptable harvesting threshold to ensure the renewal of fish stocks and the conservation of the ecosystem? This is a key issue.

Putting an end to the unremunerated exploitation of the biological resources and know-how of the global South is a major priority which international agreements have thus far struggled to put into practice

One quarter of terrestrial biodiversity exists underground. In spite of these riches, the world beneath the soil has long been neglected by ecologists and agronomists. And yet, it could well prove to be a priceless source of effective alternatives to intensive agriculture.

For the past fifteen years, aquaculture no longer just aims at producing large quantities of fish; it also seeks to be more environmentally friendly.

The image of agriculture in the Amazon is often shaped by colonisation fronts encroaching on the forest. But other forms of agriculture such asthose practised by Amerindian peoples and traditional populations can help preserve the forest cover, subject to a long fallow cycle.

The forests of French Guiana account for one third of the total surface area of French forests, a huge, largely uninhabited territory, two thirds of which are managed by the National forestry office (ONF), with the French Guiana Amazonian Park (PAG) covering the southern third of the territory. Hence the need for an overview of the diversity and fragility of the forest cover.

All over the world, the number of dams is set to explode over the coming decades, particularly in the global South. This new infrastructure will be a significant source of electricity with low greenhouse gas emissions, but will also pose an array of social and environmental problems.

With the rural exodus and globalisation, traditional knowledge is facing the threat of extinction. This fact prompted the WHO to launch a major survey of local pharmacopoeias from 2000 to 2010. This inventory had long been anticipated by IRD.

Certain plants are capable of producing their own fertiliser through symbiosis with bacteria. Understanding this process opens up the possibility of improving it, using it and possibly transferring it to other species.

Designed to reach the widest possible audience, this volume showcases some of the research projects which best illustrate the commitment of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) to biodiversity and sustainable development. Among today’s many pressing environmental challenges, protecting biodiversity is probably one of the most complex, since it cannot be understood independently of its interactions with the human societies who live with it, use it, manage it, destroy and, occasionally, protect it. As the examples contained herein demonstrate, biodiversity can no longer be confined by narrow academic boundaries. On the contrary, it is a subject inextricably linked with all of the major dynamics, human and non-human, which shape the global and local changes we currently face. In this respect, the present volume is testament to the commitment demonstrated by IRD and its partners to a vision of scientific endeavour which yields tangible, utilisable knowledge for the Global South, sustainability science in the strongest sense of the term, allowing our planet and its biodiversity to thrive in the long term.

Peru has the world’s most productive sea area for fish… but also the most fickle. This variability required a unique adaptation of the fisheries management system. Should this example be emulated?

To observe how ecosystems develop under the effect of global changes and learn how to manage them optimally, up-to-date information on the distribution of species, particularly plant species, is a necessity.

Biodiversity is being eroded all over the planet, creating new and unprecedented challenges. How can we keep track of a phenomenon on such a scale? Perhaps we need to stop and listen…

The quantity of satellite imagery available, and the data it provides on biodiversity, is so substantial that new avenues of research are opening up, requiring specialists from the fields of biodiversity, remote sensor technology and artificial intelligence to work together. This proliferation of new knowledge represents a major opportunity for the global South, where biodiversity has been less thoroughly inventoried.

The Covid 19 crisis has reminded us all of a stark reality: infectious diseases are still the leading cause of human mortality, particularly in the global south. Diseases are carried by parasites, viruses and bacteria, but their pathogenic capacity also depends on the health condition of the infected host.

The quality of human water management has a decisive impact on the biodiversity of natural habitats. And vice versa, since ecosystems also have the capacity to purify water with their myriad micro and macro-organisms.

In the tropical Andes, downstream of glaciers, a unique ecosystem, vital for local communities, is endangered by climate change. Thanks to satellite images, combined with field data, long-term projections can be carried out.

The global crisis caused by Covid 19 has forced us to look seriously at the increasing frequency with which humans are contracting diseases originating in animals, otherwise known as zoonoses. What if biodiversity was actually our best protection against these phenomena, which pose a threat to both our health and the international economy?

In the 2000s for the first time, an international team sequenced the DNAof a model plant, Arabidopsis, largely studied by biologists. This triggered a race against the clock between public and private research. The challenge was to sequence the rice genome.

Ecotourism is booming, especially in distant corners of the globe where animal species are as attractive to tourists as they are ecologically vulnerable.

Since first coming to prominence at the turn of the 1990s, the twin concepts of biodiversity and sustainable development have had a profound impact on our understanding of the relationship between humans and the environment. Despite their points of convergence, effectively combining these two concepts has not always been simple, for reasons both historical and political. We now face the two-fold challenge of cementing the connection between social and ecological action, while also ensuring th...

Now considered to be one of the greatest threats to biodiversity at a global level, the spread of invasive species is, just like pandemic diseases, a direct consequence of human activity.

Climate change is already upon us. It is a global phenomenon whose multifaceted impact is particularly hard to assess, especially when it comes to estimating the decline in biodiversity.

Creating marine nature reserves to protect coral is all well and good. But what if we were to go one step further and help the coral to adapt to future changes in the climate? The idea is making headway.

In the 1960s, the advent of intensive farming triggered an unprecedented rescue operation. The objective was to prevent the genetic resources of cultivated species and their wild relatives from being lost.

Je voudrais tout d’abord remercier l’administrateur et la professeure Edith Heard, qui – au nom des biologistes – a présenté le projet d’une chaire annuelle Biodiversité et écosystèmes à l’Assemblée des professeurs, puis ma candidature à cette première chaire, mais aussi la fondation Jean-François et Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, qui a apporté son soutien financier généreux, ainsi que ma famille, bien sûr, mes amis et mes collègues. Cette chaire est la dernière en date d’une longue tradit...

Après 4,5 milliards d’années d’évolution, notre planète s’épuise du fait de l’exploitation intensive des énergies fossiles et de l’eau, de la surconsommation d’engrais agricoles et de la déforestation. Elle pourrait vivre la plus importante des extinctions massives. Observer les organismes avec lesquels nous cohabitons permet de mieux comprendre les fonctions de chacun et de percevoir l’ampleur des phénomènes en cours, qui engagent dès à présent l’avenir de l’humanité : perte de la biodiversité, dégradation des écosystèmes, changement climatique, épidémies. Face à ce constat alarmant, les scientifiques ont un rôle déterminant à jouer : produire des modèles et formuler des prédictions pour susciter des actions politiques concrètes.

En las últimas décadas, mientras que las políticas liberales constituyeron el marco del modelo de desarrollo tanto económico como social, la región latinoamericana experimentó cambios profundos. En efecto, desde los años ochenta, la llegada a los mercados nacionales de cereales subsidiados desde los países del Norte y el crecimiento de la agroindustria llevaron a la transformación de las zonas rurales. Este proceso de «modernización» agrícola provocó una pérdida importante de agrobiodiversida...

Introducción De las 60 prácticas y expresiones latinoamericanas registradas entre 2008 y 2018 en la «Lista Representativa del Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial» de la Unesco, Bolivia tiene nada menos que cinco: Recorridos rituales en la ciudad de La Paz durante la Alasita (2017); El Pujllay y el Ayarichi: músicas y danzas de la cultura Yampara (2014); Ichapekene, la fiesta mayor de San Ignacio de Moxos (2012); El carnaval de Oruro (2008) y La cosmovisión andina de los kallawayas (2008). Como tal...

1. Introducción. Marginalización de la agricultura familiar y situación alimentaria crítica en los Andes ecuatorianos Desde los años noventa, los campesinos andinos ecuatorianos se movilizaron masivamente para vivir dignamente de la agricultura, hasta participar en la renovación del discurso oficial en los años 2000 al contribuir a la emergencia del paradigma del «Buen Vivir» (Bretón et al., 2014; Giunta, 2014). De la misma manera, poblaciones urbanas optaron, cada vez más, por una alimentaci...

El discurso institucional sobre el patrimonio alimentario, surgido en la década del noventa, se sustenta en la consideración de que la cocina cobra forma en el marco de los ecosistemas locales, las historias de ocupación territorial y los particulares desarrollos económicos (Menasche, 2012). Esto en consonancia con los planteos provenientes de la antropología alimentaria que comprende los procesos alimentarios atravesados simultáneamente por dimensiones sociales, culturales, económicas y polí...

Introducción El potencial de los productos de la biodiversidad del Cerrado brasileño ha sido tema de varios estudios que, en general, afirman que la utilización de estos artículos, especialmente de los frutos y de las semillas, puede contribuir a la valorización de los patrimonios culturales y de la identidad de las poblaciones locales (Andrade et al., 2012; Coelho et al., 2009; De Oliveira et al., 2006; Diniz et al., 2013; Matthes & Silva, 2017; Medeiros, 2011; Zaneti, 2015; Rodrigues, 2004)...

Introducción Quito, capital de Ecuador, ubicada en la provincia andina de Pichincha, ha conocido un crecimiento demográfico rápido a lo largo de las últimas décadas con la llegada de poblaciones originarias de varias provincias ecuatorianas y de países vecinos (Perú, Colombia, Venezuela, entre otros). La población local de Quito se compone de los tres principales grupos étnicos del país: afroecuatoriano, indígena y el de origen europeo. Así, varias influencias alimentarias existieron y existe...

1. A modo de introducción: algunas premisas teórico-metodológicas 1. 1. La alimentación como fenómeno sociocultural Quienes investigan la alimentación desde la Etnografía y la Antropología no tienen dudas acerca de su importancia como fenómeno sociocultural, más allá de su papel en la satisfacción fisiológica de las necesidades nutricionales, el hambre y la sed. Desde el propio surgimiento de la disciplina, la alimentación se constituyó en eje explicativo de la cultura en las escuelas antropo...

En los últimos años, el uso de la noción de «patrimonio alimentario» se generalizó en América Latina, tanto entre los actores públicos como en las asociaciones y académicos. Con el objetivo de discutir esta noción, los autores de las contribuciones que conforman este libro produjeron reflexiones críticas para evitar la trampa de utilizar el «patrimonio alimentario» como un elemento de lenguaje cargado de romanticismo, como suele ser el caso, a veces, en los círculos de activistas y en los discursos de gobiernos. Desde diferentes enfoques disciplinarios, los trabajos empíricos publicados en este libro, producto de investigaciones llevadas a cabo en Argentina, Cuba, Bolivia, Brasil, Ecuador y México, constituyen un aporte clave para los estudios sociales que articulan los temas de la alimentación y del desarrollo. Así, la presente reflexión colectiva busca impulsar nuevas investigaciones y nuevos debates acerca de la utilidad de valorizar la diversidad de las prácticas alimentarias en América Latina a fin de enfrentar los desafíos de la soberanía alimentaria y de la economía local, de conocer mejor la biodiversidad y sus beneficios, y de reconocer la diversidad cultural regional a favor de una mayor inclusión social de los grupos étnicos y de las minorías marginalizadas.

Introducción Desde la época precolombina el cacao es un producto emblemático de lo que es hoy Ecuador, su cultivo y consumo son parte de la vida de las familias campesinas de la Costa y de la Amazonía. Su valor nutritivo y energético es reconocido por todos y, por ello, fue introducido en la alimentación de la sociedad serrana desde los primeros días de la Colonia, cuando se registra formalmente su comercio (Norton, 2006). El chocolate (en agua o en leche) es probablemente la primera bebida q...

1. La alimentación como rasgo cultural kichwa La alimentación es un elemento indispensable de la existencia humana. Ella incluye representaciones de los alimentos, técnicas de adquisición y procesamiento, usos, intercambios comerciales y no comerciales (Suremain & Katz, 2009; Kuhnlein, 2014). Por lo tanto, los alimentos son objetos cargados de conocimientos, portadores de historia y de la identidad cultural de un grupo social (Santilli, 2015; Fischler, 1988). En sí, los alimentos (así como lo...

Introduction In May 2019, media reports relayed the conclusions of the seventh meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: one million species are at risk of extinction in the immediate future (IPBES, 2019). That dire warning was widely reported, but another major conclusion reached by the experts and delegates from 132 countries who contributed to the declaration went largely overlooked: the importance of local knowledge for biodiversity c...

The implementation of an Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) procedure in French Guiana (between 2007 and 2016) was the first project of its kind in France. Nobody involved was fully prepared, not even the local stakeholders who had requested the creation of such a mechanism as a prerequisite for the establishment of the French Guiana Amazonian Park. As we shall see, these local players did not always facilitate the implementation process. In this chapter we look back over these years of tentati...

The international negotiations on biological diversity underwent a number of shifts. Several authors have pointed out that, although they were included in the preparatory work for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), “the diverse expressions of the relationship between humans and nature,” were removed from the final text. Biological diversity is now defined in Article 2 of the CBD as the “variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine a...

Introduction One of the key inspirations for the Nagoya Protocol, building on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), was the pioneering Declaration of Belém, issued in 1988 by the International Society of Ethnobiology. The CBD, cited as a landmark text by many researchers, was designed to improve access to biological resources while promoting their reasonable protection and enhancement, by means of a mechanism for fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisatio...

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol apply both to genetic resources and the associated traditional knowledge conserved ex situ, i.e., when conserved outside their natural habitats or even their country of origin. Ex situ collections refer to physical resources and associated traditional knowledge embodied in material goods such as herbaria, stuffed animals or ethnographic objects preserved and accessible in the collections historically assembled in the West. E...

Introduction In his book entitled Guns, Germs and Steel, American geographer Jared Diamond (1997) identifies the control of domesticated plant and animal species as one of the underlying factors in the “pattern of history”. By enabling the development of sedentary societies some 10,000 years ago, in which the search for food was no longer the sole concern of human populations, agriculture enabled the emergence of actors specialising in activities other than hunting and gathering, such as blac...

The purpose and missions of ex situ collections have become a subject of intense discussion, in a cultural context seeking to redefine the role and nature of museums, and also as part of negotiations taking place within the framework of the Nagoya Protocol. Critics have questioned the pertinence and even the legitimacy of ex situ collections, challenging the right of institutions to retain and claim ownership of such artefacts, while also examining the use and utilisation of this property and...