Why is biodiversity and culture important in Ethiopia?
MB: Culture and biodiversity connect at four levels. The first is in spiritual life of the people. There are some places that are not touched – sacred areas – because of the beliefs of the people and there are some plants used in ceremonies and rituals that if they disappear then those plants will also disappear as they lose value in people’s minds. There is also linkage in what you know – mainly at a practical level in terms of agriculture, varieties of crops, medicinal crops – that is very much linked to culture. Another linkage is language, if you don’t speak the language and you enter into a biodiverse area and people don’t talk to you and explain that biodiversity then that biodiversity does not have a meaning. So language is critical – it comes from the experience of the people. Another linkage is knowledge, for example seed diversity. Some communities have more than 50 varieties of wheat seed so for me to go there I wouldn’t know all the varieties because I don’t have the knowle
