Pioneering in situ conservation

The alarming rate and extent of the loss of biodiversity during recent decades has drawn attention at both national and international levels to the need for preservation of the genetic diversity considered a key component of sustainable agricultural development and food security in the world.
         In particular, Agenda 21, the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) are the main international fora stressing the need for concerted efforts to preserve natural resources and biodiversity in particular.
         Genebanks can conserve in a static form some of the genetic variability of a few agricultural plant species. However, exclusion zones set aside as plant reserves are often not accepted by their local communities. Recently, community-driven in situ conservation has been hailed as a more appropriate method because it optimizes the amount of genetic diversity conserved as well as benefiting from natural selection and from farmers' local knowledge.
         The dryland areas of West Asia are home to many globally-important food and feed species and their wild relatives. The adaptation and quality attributes of dryland agro-biodiversity are highly valuable in any breeding program or to assist management aimed at reducing the effects of the severe biotic and abiotic stresses threatening agriculture worldwide.
         ICARDA, located near the centers of origin for many cereals, food legumes and forage/pasture species, has adopted a holistic approach that focuses on increasing and sustaining the productivity of the prevailing dryland farming systems while

preserving natural resources. ICARDA has collected and conserved ex situ more than 120,000 accessions of cereals, food legumes and forage species. Through its participatory research approaches, its germplasm enhancement efforts and its on-going activities in sustainable soil and water management, ICARDA is integrating in situ conservation and the use of dryland agrobiodiversity into its research agenda.

         This new dimension requires the direct involvement of local communities in designing and conducting research on various aspects of added-value technology development, policy and legislation reforms and in increasing public awareness.
         The GEF/UNDP project on 'Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dryland Agrobiodiversity,' now implemented in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, is a major step forward. It will allow the National Project Components of the participating countries and ICARDA, in collaboration with IPGRI and ACSAD, to build appropriate methodologies for successful in situ conservation of dryland biodiversity.

Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy
Director General, ICARDA

he first steps to safeguarding genetic resources--the building  blocks for crop improvement--have been taken in West Asia with the successful launch of the GEF Project.
        Five years after the project to promote in situ conservation of wild relatives and landraces of agricultural species was first proposed, the local and regional structures are in place and the valuable work, which will ensure that both native germplasm and indigenous knowledge contribute to new crop developments in the 21st century, has started.
        Funded at a cost of $8.1 million by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the UNDP, the project is officially entitled 'Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dryland Agrobiodiversity in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.' ICARDA is executing the regional component of the project, in cooperation with the IPGRI-CWANA office and the Arab Center for Studies of the Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), based in Damascus, Syria.
        The Near East, including the four partner countries in the project, takes in an area of megadiversity of important food and pasture species and fruit trees. It is a particularly appropriate venue for a project of this nature because it is one of the few nuclear centers where important species for temperate agriculture (wheat, barley, lentil, pea and vetch) originated 10,000 years ago. The dominance of traditional agriculture

systems means that many wild relatives are still found and landraces have been much used until recently, although severe genetic erosion has now started.
        Selected sites in each participating country are to be used for the in situ conservation of 16 target crops or crop groups of global significance, and their wild relatives. Among the field crops these are wheat, barley, lentil, vetch, lathyrus, medics, clovers and Allium species. Many fruit trees originated in the Near East and the project will conserve wild and local varieties of olive, apricot, cherry, plum, almond, pear, pistachio and fig.
        Local farmers will be involved in the project to assist in the actual conservation and management, and to contribute local knowledge on the plants, their cultivation and usage.