Citizenship, property rights and the governance of endemic biodiversity on agricultural land

[Extract] At face value, the concept of biological diversity, or biodiversity, is an objective measure used by scientists to describe ecosystem characteristics. Biodiversity is defined by the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) as variability among living organisms at a number of levels ranging from the members of individual species through to ecosystems and bioregions (UNEP 1992). In lay terms this may be translated as the number of genetically distinct plants, animals and micro-organisms present in any given territory. Biodiversity is also, however, an inherently social concept. This is not so much in the sense that science and the creation of scientific knowledge are themselves social activities (involving institutions, collaboration, conventions on the use of evidence etc.), but in the sense that humans and human activities are intimately implicated in the ecosystem processes through which biodiversity is reproduced and transformed. The CBD and related conventions recognise the social dimensions of biodiversity in a variety of ways: acknowledging the roles of indigenous people and farmers in managing biodiversity; identifying biodiversity as the foundation of food security and poverty alleviation; and defining plant genetic resources as a 'common heritage of mankind' (FAO 1989, p. 8)