Towards Indigenous Seed Data Sovereignty for Climate Adaptation: Safeguarding Seed and Wild Plant Heritage in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago

There is a growing demand for climate resilient solutions to address the threat of food security and biodiversity loss. Indigenous knowledge is being mined for solutions for climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation. However, Indigenous agricultural data are often recorded and digitised without the permission of, or with limited input from, Indigenous peoples, resulting in the co-opting or even theft of ancestral knowledge and plant genetic material and the exclusion of Indigenous peoples from the governance process and any benefits arising from the use of this knowledge. As the need for a diversity of options intensifies, it is vital that issues of Indigenous rights and climate justice are identified and addressed and that Indigenous-driven mechanisms to protect and value their knowledge systems are developed. This project responds to the pressing need for fundamental research into the kinds of agricultural, botanical, and climatic data that matter to Indigenous communities and forms of data governance that align with Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being. Drawing from cutting edge, interdisciplinary thinking, the project will explore whether and how a seed data commons tool may be co-developed with and for five Indigenous communities of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago: the Jamaican Hummingbird Taino People, the Scotts Hall Maroons, the Charles Town Maroons, the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project, and the First Peoples of Santa Rosa.