Alejandra Duarte, Women4Biodiversity
The interconnections between biodiversity and health go far beyond zoonotic or infectious diseases. Biodiversity is the foundation of human well-being, physical, emotional, and spiritual; and it nourishes our cultures, knowledge, and practices of care. Within this context, Indigenous and local communities’ women play a central role in the preservation and transmission of traditional health knowledge systems. Their expertise encompasses the use of medicinal plants, seed conservation, ritual healing, and community-based therapeutic practices that address reproductive, maternal, and general health needs. Their roles in caregiving, seed conservation, and ecosystem management demonstrate how gendered knowledge systems contribute to adaptive capacity and resilience. Traditional healing knowledge is both cumulative and empirical, developed through long-term observation of ecological processes and sustained intergenerational learning. Its continuity depends on deep interaction with ecosystems and on oral and experiential transmission, often embedded in rituals and social networks.
Understanding and strengthening these systems requires the meaningful participation of knowledge holders, recognizing their authority and contributions to biodiversity governance. Despite their vital importance, global biodiversity and health strategies remain largely gender-neutral and fail to integrate traditional knowledge. Current discussions tend to focus primarily on the technical and scientific aspects of integrating health strategies into international policy. However, health cannot rely solely on technical knowledge, as many aspects of modern medicine originate from traditional knowledge. These discussions must therefore move beyond the scientific and institutional sphere to acknowledge and include the cultural, spiritual, and community-based dimensions of health. This omission prevents the social and systemic transformation needed to address ecological crises.