Pablo Saavedra: “Traditional knowledge is a very useful element for the sustainable management of natural resources”

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Pablo Saavedra, said today during the inauguration of an exhibition on the Spanish Inventory of Traditional Knowledge related to Biodiversity that these constitute “a very useful element for the sustainable management of natural resources” and stressed that their contribution is essential to conserve our natural heritage.
Pablo Saavedra stressed that traditional knowledge is part of the cultural identity of our peoples and that it represents “an opportunity to increase the capacity to adapt to global change and to face the loss of ecosystem services. They constitute, in short, a key element in scientific and industrial development”.
This was highlighted by the Secretary of State during the opening of this exhibition, which aims to disseminate the importance of this Inventory, responding to the commitment to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the mandate set by our regulations on biodiversity. The exhibition will be on display until October 23 in the Skylight of the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment in Atocha.
The exhibition, whose purpose is to contribute to the preservation of traditional knowledge of interest for conservation through its dissemination, is made up of a series of panels describing the basic concepts related to traditional knowledge, the methodology designed for the inventory, information on the contents of its informative sheets, as well as a compilation of different popular knowledge.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
The Secretary of State has valued the multidisciplinary and integrative approach of this Inventory, which, for the moment, includes more than fifty informative sheets on uses and traditional knowledge of plants, animals, ecosystems and minerals and more than 65 experts from 39 institutions have participated in its preparation.
He also recalled that “we are all responsible for maintaining this heritage transmitted orally from generation to generation, since if this popular knowledge is not properly compiled we would be facing an irreparable loss of knowledge of great utility for the conservation of the natural environment”.
Finally, he thanked the authors for their enormous contribution to this work, a unique example in the European environment and stressed that efforts are maintained for the conclusion of a second phase next year, which addresses a much larger number of wild species. This second phase will cover a greater number of species, reaching about 300 and will last until mid-2017.
The exhibition describes the basic concepts of traditional knowledge, the methodology designed for this inventory, information on the contents of its dissemination sheets, as well as a compilation of different popular knowledge.
MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND CENEAM
After the inauguration today, from next week it can be visited at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, and from November 2 to 20 at the Casa de la Cultura in Albacete. Subsequently, it will be available at the National Center for Environmental Education (CENEAM), so that any interested institution or entity can request it.
The triptych of the exhibition as well as the publication of the Spanish Inventory of Traditional Knowledge related to biodiversity is available at: http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/biodiversidad/temas/inventarios-nacionales/inventario-espanol-de-los-conocimientos-tradicionales/inventario_esp_conocimientos_tradicionales.aspx