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Local Crop Varieties, Medicinal Plants, and Livestock Breeds
Has your community developed and used local crop varieties, medicinal plants, or livestock
breeds, either in the past or currently?
Do you have specific names for them in your local language? If appropriate, some examples
could be provided.
Why are they important to your community? What roles or values do they have (for example,
social, cultural, spiritual, environmental, economic, and political)?
Are the livestock migratory, sedentary, or restricted to specific areas or grazing routes?
How does your community manage the crops, medicinal plants, or livestock? You may wish to
describe customary laws, traditions, beliefs, norms, values, knowledge, and practices for
exchanging, cultivating or breeding, feeding and grazing, harvesting, processing, and using.
Are the crop varieties, medicinal plants, or livestock breeds under threat and potentially in
danger of being lost? If so, what are the factors leading to this? How are they currently being
addressed or could they be addressed in the future?
C.
MAPPING THE COMMUNITY’S SOCIAL-CULTURAL
FOUNDATIONS
KEY READING
Part I: Section III
Part II: Section II (Introduction, Box 35-36)
KEY TOOLS
Photo stories
Audio interviews
Participatory video
Historical timeline
Trend line analysis
Identifying appropriate forms of resource
mapping
Community visioning
Assessing community capacities
Assessing key opportunities and threats
The following box contains guiding questions for community discussion about social-cultural aspects,
including festivals, sacred sites, and pilgrimage routes. There may be many other topics that would be
appropriate to discuss. Particular attention should be given to considerations of sensitive or restricted
information such as exact locations, names, and other related knowledge. In the community protocol, you
may wish to include the following main types of information, among others: significant events, sites, or
other social-cultural activities with unique values and relations to the environment; customary institutions
or authorities; changes and trends over time; and visions and plans for the future.
Cultural Festivals, Rituals, Sacred Sites, and Pilgrimage Routes
Do you have cultural festivals, rituals, sacred sites, or pilgrimage routes?
What are the locations or boundaries? How are they connected to other parts of the
community’s territory or area?
What roles or values do they have in your community (for example, social, cultural, spiritual,
environmental, economic, and political)?
Which natural resources are involved and how?