BOB (Building on Biodiversity) - In the Backyard
BOB stands for Building on Biodiversity. BOB is the creation of Sharon Rempel and ESL teacher Anne Marie Brose. BOB was started in 1998 in Edmonton.
Anne Marie was working with the Edmonton Mennonite Cener for Newcomers and coordinating their community garden. Sharon wanted to find a place to develop a Participatory Action Research (PAR or PR) model for using biodiversity in Canadian gardens.
Immigrants and refuges were arriving in Edmonton with few material possessions but rich in gardening and food production wisdom from their home countries. Most were living in apartments and need to have access to land. And all needed to learn English as a Second Language (ESL).
We combined ‘literacy’ and ‘agriculture’ and ‘seed’ in community gardens and in the classroom. We found that ‘garden’ and ‘seed’ were common themes in all cultures. So we created 'seed wisdom' literacy. Anne Marie's students created Seed Words project.
Links were made with communities in their countries of origin to document traditional knowledge of plants and their uses using Participatory Action Research (PAR/PR) methods. Traditional knowledge links culture to agriculture and seed.
Conservation of agricultural biodiversity was a strong component of this work. Microenterprise development often resulted from bringing back foods and varieties that were once a valuable part of culture.
BOB - Bangladesh
Our partner is SSARA, Executive Director Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed. They work in seed saving and organic agriculture in the area of Ishurdi, Pabna. Rakib has integrated the folk music of Lalon into all the cultural work in the community.
2009 funding has been sent to the project to develop community seed banks in Ishurdi region.
Funding: Wild Rose Foundation and personal donations.
BOB - El Salvador (2001 to 2007)
In 2001 the BOB El-Salvador project received CIDA funding for Phase 1 in El Salvador, with funding support from Wild Rose Foundation and The October Hill Foundation. It worked in the area of micro-enterprise development while conserving traditional crop varieties. The project developed strong links with the Edmonton Salvadorian community.
BOB-El Salvador was a joint project of The Garden Institute of Alberta and The Balsam Association of El Salvador. The Balsam Association is a Salvadoran non-profit organisation that has developed a local micro-lending network with particular focus on women and the environment.
The primary objective of BOB-El Salvador was to conserve threatened traditional crops and the associated knowledge pertaining to the cultivation and use of these crops. Five Salvadoran communities used urban agriculture techniques to grow and conserve crops that have traditionally held an important place in the Salvadoran diet and culture. Many of these crops are no longer available or are unaffordable to these communities due to a decline in their cultivation in the Salvadoran countryside.
Achieved goals:
1. Created a market solution to the erosion of biodiversity in indigenous food and medicinal crops and the associated loss of traditional knowledge.
2. Raised income level of participant micro-entrepreneurs.
3. Provided an inexpensive source of locally produced, healthful food and a source of traditional plant-derived medicine.
Activities:
1. Documented traditional knowledge of endangered economic plants.
2. Created model gardens to demonstrate urban agriculture methods and to serve as living seed banks.
3. Exchanged information and knowledge between Canadians and Salvadorans regarding appropriate technologies for urban agriculture in El Salvador.
4. Created micro-enterprise and seed conservation training programs.
5. Produced popular educational materials about how to sustain the use of plant biodiversity, soil, and water in urban agriculture.
(Thanks to volunteer project coordinator Michael Pierce for years of work with the project on behalf of The Garden Institute of Alberta)
INDIGO is a project that has come out of the BOB project. Contact Nancy Finlayson (780) 469-3050 for information about INDIGO.
Funding from
IDRC, SAGE, The Garden Institute of Alberta, EJLB Foundation, Seeds of Diversity Canada, October Hill Foundation, CIDA, Wild Rose Foundation and private donations.