Food biocultural heritage and its contributions to sustainability and territorial resilience

Abstract

This article examines the discussion of sustainability, resilience, and adaptation to critical external effects in the role of biocultural food heritage in territorial development. The reflections on the relationship between heritage and sustainable development are not new. Whether from the cultural, social, and economic ambits or development agendas, various theoretical and empirical fields have explored and explained the role of cultural identity (internalized as collective heritage) in the well-being of communities and territories. Often, the debate shows the promotion or strengthening of cultural identities as an indicator of sustainable development. Without losing sight of cultural identities, it is worth reversing the order and recognizing how development and sustainability are understood and promoted based on cultural diversity, territorial identities, and cultural heritage. This document seeks to represent this relationship (heritage versus sustainable development) from the territorial experience of recognizing the chakra as an ancestral agri-food system in its territorial development plan in the Cotacachi canton, thereby recognizing community efforts to safeguard its cultural heritage.