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Who manages home garden agrobiodiversity? : patterns of species distribution, planting material flow and knowledge transmission along the Corrientes River of the Peruvian Amazon

Agrobiodiversity constitutes an essential resource for traditional rural populations. Home gardens are "hotspots" of agrobiodiversity and important loci of in situ conservation efforts. This study seeks to understand the factors affecting gardeners' choices and to assess the accessibility of planting material in rural communities of the Peruvian Amazon. Household surveys and garden inventories conducted in 15 villages of the Corrientes river (n = 300), and case studies in three of these villages (n = 89), allowed to describe the local and regional patterns of garden agrobiodiversity and the structure of planting material exchange networks. Analyses reveal a strong link between species diversity and both household cultural and socioeconomic characteristics, and village ethnicity and size. Planting material flows primarily through matrilineal bonds, from advice-givers to advice-seekers, from old to young and from rich to poor. Farmers with exceptional species diversity, propensity to give and/or expertise are identified and their role in the conservation of cultivated plants is assessed. Expertise is not found to be as closely related to high species diversity as expected, but knowledge and planting stock dissemination go hand-in-hand.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.83198
Date January 2005
CreatorsPerrault-Archambault, Mathilde
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of Geography.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 002294264, proquestno: AAIMR22614, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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