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> Natural Resources research group

Krystyna Swiderska

Principal researcher (agriculture and biodiversity), Natural Resources

Krystyna Swiderska is an expert in traditional knowledge and biocultural heritage of indigenous peoples and local communities. She is currently leading a British Academy funded project on Indigenous Biocultural Heritage for Sustainable Development, which aims to catalyse the establishment of biocultural heritage territories and integrate indigenous wellbeing concepts into the Sustainable Development Goals.
Full biography

Her interests are in supporting indigenous peoples’ struggles to secure rights to land, resources and self-determination, enhancing understanding of the linkages between culture and biodiversity, and enhancing support for in situ conservation of evolving gene banks under community stewardship.

She is working with partners and indigenous communities in Peru, Kenya, India and China to support participatory action research to establish collectively managed landscapes and indigenous enterprises in centres of origin and diversity of major food crops.

Krystyna leads IIED’s work on biocultural heritage. From 2012-17 she coordinated a five-year European Union funded project on ‘Smallholder Innovation for Resilience: strengthening innovation systems for food security in the face of climate change’ in the Potato Park Peru, Stone Village Southwest China, Mijikenda forests of coastal Kenya and Indian Himalayas. Prior to that she coordinated an IDRC-funded project on ‘Protecting community rights over traditional knowledge: Implications of customary laws and practices’ in Peru, China, Kenya, India and Panama.

Krystyna has engaged in Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) policy processes for several years, particularly on article 8(j) on traditional knowledge and access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing. She has also been active in UNFCCC and UNESCO forums to enhance recognition of the role of traditional knowledge and crops in climate adaptation; and in the CBD-UNESCO joint programme of work on linking biological and cultural diversity. She is currently working with ANDES (Peru) and University of Leeds to develop a global biocultural heritage labelling system.

In 2018, Krystyna was the lead author for a UNEP Handbook on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in mountain, dryland and coastal ecosystems, which provides guidance for community-led EbA.

Since 2014, Krystyna has been actively supporting the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples, which seeks to revitalise biocultural heritage for climate adaptation and sustainable food systems through community to community learning exchanges. She was co-chair of the International Society for Ethnobiology’s Global Coalition for Biocultural Diversity from 2012-14.

Expertise

Traditional knowledge, biocultural heritage, agrobiodiversity and indigenous food systems; biocultural heritage territories, indigenous enterprises and community-led ecosystem-based adaptation.

Before IIED

MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London; BSc in Natural Sciences, Cambridge University. Currently conducting a part-time PhD in biocultural heritage at Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience.

Current work

Principal investigator for a GCRF project funded by the British Academy, involving research on indigenous worldviews and wellbeing concepts and biocultural systems, and their role in addressing SDG2 (end hunger). This participatory action-research seeks to support the establishment of community-managed biocultural heritage territories and to inform policy makers in Peru, India, China and Kenya.

Interviews

IIED expert interviews: Krystyna Swiderska
Krystyna Swiderska's picture
Telephone: 
+44 (0) 20 3463 7399
Email: 
krystyna.swiderska@iied.org
Twitter: @KrystynaSwider4
ORCID
ResearchGate
 
Languages: English, French and Spanish

Krystyna Swiderska's projects

An elderly woman in a field holds crops in the air with both hands

Indigenous food systems, biocultural heritage and agricultural resilience

Project, Apr 2020
People sitting in a pasture

International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples (INMIP)

Project, Jun 2019
View of the town of Pisaq in Peru, near the Potato Park Biocultural Heritage Territory

Indigenous biocultural heritage for sustainable development

Project, Apr 2019
A herbalist shares information on medicinal and food plants growing in Kaya Kinondo Sacred Coastal Forest in Kenya

Smallholder innovation for resilience (SIFOR)

Project, Aug 2013
Drying medicinal plants, the knowledge of which is passed down through generations. In South Asia alone, there are more than 8,000 plant species with known medicinal value (Photo: Bioversity International/B. Sthapit)

Sustaining local food systems and agricultural biodiversity

Project, Aug 2013
Farmers sharing potatoes in the Potato Park near Pisaq (Sacred Valley), Peru

Protecting community rights over traditional knowledge

Project, Apr 2013
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Krystyna Swiderska's blog posts

A group of people gather around a pile of potatoes with mountains as a backdrop

Indigenous Peoples’ food systems hold the key to feeding humanity

Blog, Oct 2020
A stallholder in front of a food stall

Resilient food systems and COVID-19: lessons for a Just Transition

Blog, May 2020
Women at an outside meeting sat on the floor under trees

Protecting indigenous cultures is crucial for saving the world’s biodiversity

Blog, Feb 2020
A new radish variety shown off by Dayanand Joshi

As climate changes, Himalayan farmers return to traditional crops

Blog, Oct 2018
The Potato Park’s Craft micro-enterprise group. Biocultural heritage indicators that are a guarantee of origin and authenticity have increased incomes and improved social cohesion at the Potato Park (Photo: Asociacion ANDES (Peru))

Designing a biocultural heritage labelling system: survey results

Blog, Jan 2017
Sorting apricots in Tajikistan. The diverse and extreme climatic conditions of Central Asia helped farmers develop fruit varieties adaptable to drought and other environmental stresses (Photo: UNDP, Creative Commons via Flickr)

The Paris Agreement – a framework for local inclusion

Blog, Feb 2016
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Links to other sites

Interview with Krystyna Swiderska

Green Heritage Futures podcast, August 2019

As climate changes, Himalayan farmers return to traditional crops

The Third Pole, August 2018

 
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