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classroom activities in traditional food preparation.

Broad-based education activities took place in inter-

vention communities that stressed the local cultural

food diversity and its benefits for understanding the

ecosystem as well as for health in harvest, use and

human nutrition. First steps were to use knowledge

generated in Phase 1 to develop positive attitudes

about local traditional food so that case study lead-

ers could then foster behaviours at all levels to in-

crease use of these foods. In the Pohnpei case

study, for example, agricultural leaders provided

training in agricultural practices and provided

seedlings and young trees for planting in yards ad-

jacent to community homes. In the Karen case

study, school children were taught how to harvest

from the forest, and also how to plant, cultivate and

harvest their local traditional agricultural crops in

village areas, which was followed by popular activ-

ities of harvesting and preparation of meals for their

families. In the Gwich’in area, youth in middle

school and high school prepared dried caribou meat

and shared it with the elders in their community;

and in the Inuit project elders made radio pro-

grammes that were shared for learning with youth

in their school classes. These are just some of the

examples showing how communities created their

own meaningful activities.

Engagement with government offices was also an

important cross-cutting theme. While some case

study partners did not have regular communication

with government offices, others did. When the com-

munication was fruitful, it contributed a lot to the in-

tervention. For example the Pohnpei case study

worked well with ministries responsible for agricul-

ture, health, education, and the public media to fur-

ther their goals. People knew each other and

connected easily. This was possible, in part, because

of the pro-active leadership of the project, but also

because both the state and national governments

were in the same town on the same island in the

Federated States of Micronesia. Another example is

the good relationships the Karen project had with

the Ministry of Health in Kanchanaburi Province, as

well as the local border control officers who helped

with activities in the schools. There was also good

attention given by the Thai royal family to the proj-

ect, which raised project profile with government

agencies throughout Thailand. On the other hand,

government offices are not always helpful to In-

digenous Peoples if there is conflict over land or

other resources and if there is systematic disad-

vantage based on discrimination; such discrimina-

tion is often manifest in lack of access to healthcare

in rural areas where Indigenous Peoples live.

Throughout all intervention projects committed

community leaders and academics became effective

advocates dedicated to the success of the project

and responsible for developing the capacity-building

activities and empowerment of residents to use the

local food systems based in culture to their best ad-

vantage. Capacity-building was the hallmark of the

Dalit project in the Zaheerabad district of Hyderabad,

India, where Dalit women were given opportunities

for education, especially in media productions, and

in finding education opportunities for their children.

This resulted not only in increased literacy, but in

building self-worth and commitment to using and

showcasing their unique foods in many different

ways, such as in culinary food fairs, computer cafes,

and film festivals. All projects engaged project as-

sistants to help with food activities and the research

foundations of the interventions. A popular activity

in most case studies was creation of photo-en-

hanced information books on the food system to

share in schools, public places and to be distributed

to village homes. Local assistants, primarily women,

were leaders in networking, and in helping others to

“learn by doing”, and to gain participatory agree-

ments on how to best move the projects forward.

The best successes occurred in bringing together

the community’s social capital in the form of

hunters, farmers, fishers, elders, political leaders,

teachers and spiritual leaders to advance from the