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Dryland Agrobio No. 2 July - September 2000
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Thematic groups reinforcing the regionality of the GEF/UNDP Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project
 he Regional Steering Committee of the GEF/UNDP Project on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dryland Agrobiodiversity implemented in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority approved the formation of thematic groups.
Four thematic groups---Socio-economics/extension/ public awareness; Genetic resources; Natural resource management/rangelands; and Policy/property rights/legislation---were formed to work closely with the Regional Component, to ensure the standardization of methodologies and approaches, and the harmonization of the activities. Each thematic group brought together national thematic focal experts and the international thematic experts from ICARDA, IPGRI, and ACSAD, with the full involvement of the Regional Coordinator and the National Project Managers. The first thematic group meetings and workshops were organized at the University of Jordan in Amman from 28 September to 5 October 2000. The Policy and Legislation Workshop, held 28-30 September 2000 at Amman, Jordan, was attended by 10 national and international experts, in addition to National Project Managers and the Regional Coordinator.
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to agrobiodiversity and will present aspects to be considered at the regional level. The group agreed to meet again in Amman after 16 November 2000 to further discuss the approach presented and the activities to be accomplished during the second year of the project.
The contributions of the national experts, Dr. J.
Isaac, Dr. W. Abed Rabboh and Dr. K. Quba'a from the Palestinian Authority, Dr. A. Jabarin from Jordan, Dr. H. Malat from Lebanon and Dr. A. Khoury from Syria were highly appreciated.
Dr Ahmed Amri, in his concluding remarks, thanked all the participants for their efforts in the development of the common framework, which, he said, is an asset to the regionality of the project. He expressed his thanks, on behalf of ICARDA and all the Project Components, to the Dean of Agriculture at the University of Jordan, to the Director, National Center for Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer (NCARTT), to the project team in Jordan, and to the ICARDA Regional Office in Amman for their excellent arrangements and hospitality.
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The Genetic Resources Unit at ICARDA
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Participants to the Policy and Legislation thematic meeting.
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The Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) was set up in 1983 to take charge of all germplasm collection, characterization, conservation, documentation, and distribution activities at ICARDA. GRU is currently holding a total of 125,000 accessions of its mandate crops in its gene bank (60,000 cereals, 32,000 food legumes, 26,000 forages, and 6500 rangeland species). Around 70% of these originate from the drylands of the Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa regions (CWANA). These collections are held in trust in the Center's cold store, under the auspices of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Each year ICARDA distributes, on average, over 30,000 samples to ICARDA and other researchers worldwide. The genebank is playing a major role in safeguarding valuable genetic resources highly threatened by genetic erosion. The stored accessions can be used in rehabilitation and restoration efforts anywhere in the CWANA region. GRU's collection missions have enabled scientists to spot areas where endangered target species are present in large numbers. The information compiled will serve in the selection of sites for future in situ conservation, a form of conservation presently receiving high attention. For the last 5 years, GRU has been conducting field trials using molecular techniques to develop a scientific basis for in situ conservation of wild species, and for on-farm conservation of cereal and legume landraces.
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Dr Ahmed Amri, Regional Coordinator, and Dr George Ayad, Regional Director for IPGRI-CWANA, introduced the objective of the workshop: development of guidelines to be followed by the National Project Components in the development of national and regional policies and legislation to promote community-driven in situ conservation of dryland agrobiodiversity. These guidelines should take into consideration signed international conventions and treaties, and should involve local communities that are the main custodians of local biodiversity.
Dr I. El-Badre, the invited international expert, summarized the international agreements relating to biodiversity conservation and presented options for their adoption within the national and regional policies and legislations.
The participants, under the guidance of Dr Tidiane Ngaido, Property Rights Specialist from ICARDA, developed a general framework to be followed by all the National Components in the development of national policies and legislation that will enhance the in situ conservation of target species.
The thematic group, under the leadership of Dr G. Ayad, will review the international agreements to select areas related
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