ABSTRACT
Culture and agriculture are intimately related, even at the level of the term ‘agri-culture’ (Sauer, 1986; Santilli, 2013). This chapter will analyze how legal instruments aimed at safeguarding cultural heritage can be used to promote every element of a biodiversity-rich agricultural system, whether tangible (agroecosystems, cultivated plants) or intangible (agricultural techniques, practices and knowledge). I will argue that safeguarding traditional food ways and dietary diversity is also an important way to promote agrobiodiversity and food security (see also Chapter 24 by Kuhnlein and Chapter 25 by Raneri and Kennedy of this Handbook; Röessler, 2005; Santilli, 2011). The UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage are both examples of instruments that can be (and, in some cases, have been) used to promote agrobiodiversity and food diversity in different, innovative ways and will be explored from this perspective in this chapter. Brazilian and Peruvian cultural heritage national instruments and their roles in promoting traditional agricultural ecosystems will also be discussed.
