Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

Temperate homegardens of small alpine farmers in Eastern Tyrol (Austria)
Temperate homegardens of small alpine farmers in Eastern Tyrol
(Austria): Their value for maintaining and enhancing biodiversity 1
B. VOGL-LUKASSER 2 and CH. R. VOGL 3
Eastern Tyrol (Lienz district) is located in the Eastern Alps of Austria and characterised
by a multifunctional cultural and natural landscape. Homegardens are an integral
part of this mountainous landscape. An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in
1997 and 1998 in 196 gardens on farms, at elevations between 600 and 1.600 m
above sea level (VOGL-LUKASSER 2000; VOGL-LUKASSER et al. 2002).
Subsistence farming was primarily based on arable crops, alpine hay meadows and
grazing grounds until the 1970s. Homegardens provided only a small number of species
(mean ca. 10 per garden); throughout the region in total 51 species were grown.
Since the 1970s, cultivation of field vegetables, cereals and fibre crops is in decline.
As a parallel process, women actively enrich diversity in gardens and a remarkable
increase of the number of species grown can be observed (mean 42 per garden;
throughout the region in total 587). Species are introduced not only from the surrounding
agroecosystems, where biodiversity is eroding, but also from natural ecosystems
or markets. In addition, women retain the main part of species and varieties
traditionally grown in homegardens.
Of these 587 species, 79 have some kind of endangered status according to the
Austrian Red List (NIKLFELD and SCHRATT-EHRENDORFER 1999). 39 cultivated species
can be classified, according to LOHMEYER (1981), as cultivation in danger of decline
in Central Europe. Traditional perennial garden species were passed on by predecessors
at 77% of the farms. Local varieties of 16 annual or biannual species are
passed on as seeds and are cultivated in gardens and fields at 21% of the farms examined.
Homegardens in Eastern Tyrol can be seen as a place of importance for the in situ
conservation of traditional farming techniques of certain plant genetic resources.
1 Full text will be published in: Proceedings of the workshop “Contribution of home gardens to in situ
conservation of plant genetic resources in farming systems”, 17-19 July 2001, Witzenhausen, Germany.
IPGRI, Rome, Italy.
2 Hamerlinggasse 12
A-2340 Mödling, Austria
3 University of Agricultural Sciences
Institute for Organic Farming
Vienna, Austria
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