Conservation Planning for Crop Wild Relative Diversity

Crop wild relatives (CWR) can provide one solution to future challenges on food security, sustainable agriculture and adaptation to climate change. Diversity found in CWR can be essential for adapting crops to these new demands. Since the need to improve in situ conservation of CWR has been recognized by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (2010) and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (2011–2020), it is important to develop ways to safeguard these important genetic resources. The Nordic flora includes many species related to food, forage and other crop groups, but little has been done to systematically secure these important wild resources. A Nordic regional approach to CWR conservation planning provided opportunities to network, find synergies, share knowledge, plan the conservation and give policy inputs on a regional level. A comprehensive CWR checklist for the Nordic region was generated and then prioritized by socio-economic value and utilization potential. Nordic CWR checklist was formed of 2553 taxa related to crop plants. Out of these, 114 taxa including 83 species were prioritized representing vegetable, cereal, fruit, berry, nut and forage crop groups. The in situ conservation planning of the priority CWR included ecogeographic and complementarity analyses to identify a potential network of genetic reserve sites in the region. Altogether 971,633 occurrence records of the priority species were analysed. A minimum number of sites within and outside existing conservation areas were identified that had the potential to support a maximum number of target species of maximum intraspecific diversity.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A regional approach to Nordic crop wild relativein situconservation planning

Fitzgerald

Palmé

Asdal

et al. 2019

“…The requirements for their establishment and management would be minimal within the current PA network to effectively conserve the CWR diversity and they can provide additional benefit to local people (Maxted et al ., 2008b; Maxted and Kell, 2009). The ELC zones are not reflected well within the existing PA network, therefore in situ complementary conservation measures outside PA will need to be implemented to ensure the full range of ecogeographic diversity is preserved (Maxted and Kell, 2009; Maxted et al ., 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and conservation priorities of crop wild relatives in Mexico

Contreras-Toledo

Cortés-Cruz

Costich³

et al. 2019

Self Cite

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are valuable resources for crop breeding due to their close genetic relationship to the cultivated plants and their wide genetic variation, allowing the introgression of desirable traits into the crops, such as resistance to plant pests and diseases or adaptability to climate change. Mexico is a centre of agrobiodiversity, including CWR, but climate change, and other factors, are contributing to the loss of important Mexican CWR genetic diversity. The in situ and ex situ conservation status of Mexican priority CWR were assessed through a gap analysis as part of a national CWR conservation strategy for Mexico, to ensure the long-term preservation and improve the availability of these genetic resources. A set of 310 priority CWR taxa, previously identified as part of the national CWR inventory for Mexico, were analysed. Species distribution modelling and ecogeographic diversity analyses were used to detect gaps in in situ and ex situ conservation at taxon and ecogeographic levels. Priority target sites were identified throughout the country for complementary in situ and ex situ conservation of these taxa. The results obtained allow us to make recommendations for immediate conservation actions, thus helping to mitigate the threats to Mexican agrobiodiversity and enhance both national and global food security.

“…The present study highlights the paucity of information on the potential of CWR as trait donors for crop improvement – a global issue limiting the use of CWR (Maxted et al ., 2008, 2012, 2015, 2016; Maxted and Kell, 2009; McCouch et al ., 2013; Dempewolf et al ., 2014; Kell et al ., 2017), and thus impacting their perceived value for conservation action. The 21 prioritized CWR species here are either closely related to the priority crops/crop groups or more distantly related.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crop wild relative diversity and conservation planning in two isolated oceanic islands of a biodiversity hotspot (Mauritius and Rodrigues)

Bissessur

Baider

Boodia

et al. 2019

The rising need for crop diversification to mitigate the impacts of climate change on food security urges the exploration of crop wild relatives (CWR) as potential genetic resources for crop improvement. This study aimed at assessing the diversity of CWR of the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues and proposing cost-effective conservation measures for their sustainable use. A comprehensive list of the native species was collated from The Mauritius Herbarium and published literature. Each species was assessed for the economic value of its related crop, utilization potential for crop improvement, relative distribution, occurrence status and Red List conservation status, using a standard scoring method for prioritization. The occurrence data of the priority species were collected, verified, geo-referenced and mapped. A total of 43 crop-related species were identified for both islands and 21 species were prioritized for active conservation. The CWR diversity hotspots in Mauritius included Mondrain, followed by Florin and Le Pouce Mountain. Although a wide diversity of CWR has been recorded on both islands, most do not relate to major economic crops in use, therefore only a few species may be gene donors to economic crops at the regional and global level. For example, coffee, a major global beverage crop, has three wild relatives on Mauritius, which could potentially be of interest for future predictive characterization.