ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the research findings from Nagaland and Sikkim concerning how social and agricultural practices in some of the indigenous ethnic communities of this region have evolved to conserve and maintain crop diversity, and examines the criticality of gender for agro-biodiversity conservation. Humans have lived in this region for several millennia, adapting their custom, lifestyles and livelihoods to the local environments. The traditional subsistence systems and livelihood practices of the Lepchas and the Nagas were hunting-gathering, considered ‘men’s domain’, and slash and burn cultivation, considered ‘women’s domain’. The roles and responsibilities of men and women in conserving agro-ecosystems, species and genes are defined on the basis of the different skills and knowledge that they have acquired and the socio-cultural norms and practices that have shaped them. The punzok agro-forestry area is unique to the Lepchas.
