Suchergebnisse

Authors: Remans, R.; Jones, S.; Quiros, C.; Smith, A.G.; Attwood, S.; Werneck, F.; Negra, C.; Hoogendoorn, C.; Menza, G.; Villani, C.; China, R.; Tutwiler, A. ; The Agrobiodiversity Index is an innovative tool that measures the current state of agrobiodiversity in markets and consumption, in agricultural production, and in genetic resource management, and the extent to which commitments and actions at country, company and project level support sustainable use and conservation of agrobiodiversity. Status indicators are scored based on spatial global data sets and national data sets accessed through global databases at United Nations agencies. Action indicators are scored based on country reports, such as those from the World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (WIEWS) and in the State of the World Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, both compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), as well as other spatial datasets. Commitment indicators are scored based a text-mining tool that analyzes policies, strategies and other national legislation, retrieved from the FAO's legislation and policies database, FAOLEX. The Agrobiodiversity Index has 22 indicators, comprising 3 commitment indicators, 4 action indicators and 15 status indicators.

With the generous support of XXX, Bioversity International is undertaking research in Cambodia and Laos to improve the livelihoods of poor smallholder farmers, and to assist them in adapting to environmental stresses induced by climate change in order to achieve sustainable nutrition and livelihoods. The project aims to identify, test and disseminate seed varieties that are best adapted to a broad range of environmental conditions, using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, environmental data and information management. Training will be provided to increase the capacity of government decision-makers and technical staff, and several awareness-raising activities for communities undertaken. Ultimately, a farmer-based 'experimentation network' in the Mekong River Basin region for the testing of selected planting materials will be established. This is the second technical report, which summarizes and reviews the activities, progress and achievements of the second year of the project, covering the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014.

Worldwide, farmers lose more than 25% of their harvests each year due to crop pests and diseases that attack their fields. Pests and diseases not only affect farmers' family food baskets and income, but they also affect how much food is available on global markets. Ironically, one solution to that loss can be found where the loss is occurring. Consider, for example, that there are some 1,200 varieties of bananas and thousands of varieties of beans – each of these varieties has its own level of resistance to pests, diseases and even to extreme weather conditions that could stem those losses. That is why Bioversity International has set up field trials, working with farmers who plant different varieties of the same crops next to each other in their fields, to see which combinations provide the most effective control against which pests and diseases. Initial results from around the world indicate change. Ugandan farmers have seen the presence of weevils that attack banana plants reduced by 75%. Smallholder farmers in Ecuador who planted diverse bean varieties harvested their crop in spite of a heat wave, while those who invested in one commercial variety lost everything. Chinese farmers in the mountains of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces identified their most resistant traditional maize and rice varieties and established community seedbanks to make them available. The Government of Morocco produced a film promoting the importance of genetic diversity in reducing crop pests and diseases for the general public.

The programme "Linking agrobiodiversity value cahins, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk" funded by IFAD and the European Union from 2015 to 2018 aims to strenghten the capacities of farmers to manage risks associated with climate change, poor nutrition status, and economic disempowerment through agrobiodiversity-based solutions. Enhancing productivity and promoting use of nutritious and climate-hardy underutilized species is the core of the initiative, which is focusing on fonio, Bambara groundnut and native vegetables in six villages in Sikasso and Segou regions of Mali. The approach is two-prong, involving on one hand, targeted value chain interventions for fonio and Bambara groundnut, and on the other hand, exploratory work to prioritize native vegetables and other underutilized crops that can fill nutrition gaps in critical seasons. A holistic approach addressing multiple bottlenecks in supply and demand is being applied for fonio and Bambara groundnut, engaging consultation and participation of multiple stakeholders to ensure the interventions are pro-poor and gender-sensitive and to advocate for supportive policies.

The programme "Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk" funded by IFAD and the European Union from 2015 to 2018 aims to strengthen the capacities of farmers to manage risks associated with climate change, poor nutrition status, and economic disempowerment through agrobiodiversity-based solutions. Enhancing productivity and promoting use of nutritious and climate-hardy underutilized species is the core of the initiative, which is focusing on minor millets and native vegetables in Madhya Pradesh. The approach is two-prong, involving on one hand targeted value chain activities for the minor millets, which are widely recognized for their important role in supporting climate change adaptation and food security in India and which show growing market potential, and on the other hand, exploratory work on native vegetables that aims to document and identify high potential species that can fill nutrition gaps in critical seasons. A holistic approach addressing multiple bottlenecks in supply and demand is being applied for the minor millets (and later for promising native vegetables), engaging consultation and participation of multiple stakeholders to ensure the interventions are pro-poor and gender-sensitive and to advocate for supportive policies .

Un racconto per ragazzi, con illustrazioni di Dea Rimedio, 'Insieme per nutrire il mondo' è una pubblicazione che ci racconta della biodiversità agricola, da dove proviene il nostro cibo, e di quello che le persone coltivano e mangiano in altri paesi del mondo.La pubblicazione era parte di una campagna di Bioversity International rivolta alle scuole, ai mezzi di comunicazione, ai politici e ai legislatori.

This report provides highlights from a workshop entitled "Embedding mutually supportive implementation of the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol in the context of broader national policy goals. A workshop for national teams of policy actors". The workshop brought together eleven national teams comprised of National Focal Points for the Nagoya Protocol, the Plant Treaty and the GEF and representatives of lead national agencies dealing with climate change adaptation and agriculture and national finance and planning authorities. As the title of the workshop suggests, the participants examined options to embed the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the Plant Treaty in national programmess and strategies to promote climate change adaptation, poverty alleviation, food security and conservation. It was organized by the ABS Capacity Development Initiative and Bioversity International in cooperation with the African Union Commission and the Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, held at the International Livestock Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 16th – 20th November 2015

More than a thousand tree species in Asia and the Pacific are actively managed, for diverse purposes such as timber, non-timber products and ecosystem services. At the same time, many of the region's tree species are under threat. Asia Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme (APFORGEN) is a programme and network for enhancing the conservation and management of the region's unique forest genetic resources. This Strategy outlines three priority objectives for regional collaboration in 2014-2016: (1) Political and financial support is mobilized, (2) Regionally important threatened tree species are conserved and sustainably used, and (3) Tree seed programmes are strengthened. The Strategy supports the regional implementation of FAO's Global Plan of Action for Forest Genetic Resources.

The twelfth meeting of the ECPGR Steering Committee (SC) was held in Bratislava, Slovakia, 14-16 December 2010 to discuss the report of the Independent External Review, which had been completed in July 2010. The main decisions of the meeting include: a consensus agreement on the wording of ECPGR's new goal and outcomes; the establishment of an Executive Committee, immediately elected; plans for the preparation by the Executive Committee of an "Options paper" on future direction of ECPGR, to be discussed at the next SC meeting; plans to deal with the European Commission and produce a brief strategy paper on the relationship of ECPGR with the European Union/Commission and Parliament; confirmation of the role of the Programme as the owner of EURISCO and supervisor of its development. The SC gave clear confirmation that they regarded AEGIS as a pillar for the implementation of ECPGR objectives and requested the Working Groups to be more achievement-oriented, such as in defining the European Collection and the crop quality standards for conservation.

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Treaty) was adopted in 2001, after eight years of negotiation, and came into force in 2004. Its objectives are the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Treaty creates the multilateral system of access and benefit sharing (multilateral system), through which contracting parties agree to provide facilitated access to genetic resources of sixty-four crops and forages that are crucial for food security worldwide. The multilateral system can be seen as the most advanced expression of countries' intention to co-operate in the conservation, distribution and use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and it constitutes a central element in a global system in which different types of users around the world share both responsibilities and benefits in the conservation and use of plant genetic resources. The multilateral system can be implemented only if countries' governments, international organizations and individual users worldwide embrace its collaborative spirit and approach plant genetic resources conservation and use as a joint international effort. Effective collaboration depends upon understanding the perspectives of the different stakeholders. The four national case studies presented in this volume – focusing on Kenya, Morocco, Peru and the Philippines – were commissioned as part of an effort of the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) to better appreciate the incentives and disincentives that countries and their constituent interest groups have to engage (or not) in the multilateral system. They are expected to help the CGIAR centres and other international organizations to orient their support towards the implementation of the global system, and the Treaty, in particular, with a wider vision of countries' expectations and constraints for international co-operation in the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. These case studies should also be useful for other countries that are engaged in implementing the multilateral system domestically in order to see how the four countries highlighted in the volume 'frame' the challenges and identify options for effective participation in the system.

In the past, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) of Costa Rica worked with paper-based data, which hindered their response to emergencies. To increase adequate emergency responses to extreme climate events, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and Bioversity International assisted the local government of Siquirres by piloting a digital system for data collection and decision-making. This pilot was scaled up to collect data on 3575 affected households and inventory the USD 57 million of damages after Hurricane Otto. It enabled the MoAL to draft a detailed response plan to both restore agricultural infrastructure and increase climate resilience.

This study examines a number of issues related to Malaysia's implementation of the multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing created by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The paper suggests a three-stage approach to addressing these issues. First, it establishes a process for ascertaining which of Malaysia's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture are under government management and control. It includes a survey of the major institutions in Malaysia holding collections of crops and forages, and examines whether they function as an extension of a government department. If so, the paper argues that the plant genetic resources held by those organizations and listed in Annex 1 of the Treaty are automatically included in the Treaty's multilateral system (if they are also in the public domain, as the Treaty stipulates). Second, the paper examines existing laws to ascertain whether they include provisions for implementing the multilateral system. The study suggests that it is possible to implement the multilateral system in Malaysia without the time-consuming process of enacting a new law, or even amending existing laws. While such initiatives are not necessary however, there may be situations in which amending existing statues would contribute to long-term legal certainty. The paper offers draft text for such amendments. Finally, the study examines a national law on access and benefit-sharing made pursuant to the Convention on Biological Diversity and recommends that it exclude the PGRFA in the multilateral system from its ambit, thereby creating legal and policy space for implementing the multilateral system.

Central Asia is one of the most important centres of origin for temperate fruit species, and enjoys very rich specific and intraspecific diversity of fruit trees. Apple, apricot, peach, pear, plum, grape, almond, pistachio, pomegranate, and fig are among the best known crops cultivated in the region, where the diverse and extreme natural and climatic conditions have helped farmers produce varieties adaptable to drought and resistant to a number of environmental stress factors. However, major changes in the rural economies in Central Asia, after the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991, have contributed to exacerbating some of the threats to agricultural biodiversity. From 2005 to 2010, the United Nations environment Programme (UNEP) with the Global environmental Fund (GEF) supported a project coordinated by Bioversity International to understand "In situ/on-farm Conservation and Use of Agricultural Biodiversity in Central Asia". The project analyzed existent legislation and policies in the region to identify gaps and provide options to policymakers for strengthening legal and policy frameworks that support the conservation of horticultural and wild fruit species genetic diversity. This publication summarizes the factors that threaten local diversity of fruit and horticultural crops in 5 focal countries, and outlines the measures that can be adopted to develop and implement policy and legislative frameworks that better serve conservation goals.

The second meeting of the ECPGR Vitis Working Group was held 18-20 September 2012 at Siebeldingen, Germany, involving 18 WG members and 3 observers. The meeting was organized in collaboration with the Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof, Siebeldingen. All Vitis WG members were invited to join the COST Action FA1003 on "East-West collaboration for grapevine diversity exploration and mobilization of adaptive traits for breeding" and establish agreements with COST partners for fingerprinting of accessions identified as candidates for the European collection. The status and progress of the European Vitis Database, hosted and maintained by JKI were presented. The meeting acknowledged the European Catalogue of Nationally Registered Varieties as currently the most reliable and up-to-date for the definition of synonyms of registered varieties in Europe, and recommended using at least the 9 SSRs agreed by the WG for the determination of the identity of an accession and the 48 descriptors of the EC GrapeGen06 project for trueness-to-type testing. The Group agreed to contribute to the development of a simplified protocol for the movement of propagation material across countries within and outside the EU. The meeting discussed the initiative for "A European Genebank Integrated System" (AEGIS) and the establishment of the European Collection. A procedure for the selection of AEGIS accessions was agreed, focusing on minor and neglected cultivars of European countries. A preliminary list of autochthonous varieties to be included in the European Collection was drawn. The WG agreed with the AEGIS draft policy for safety-duplication and endorsed the draft FAO generic standards for non-orthodox seeds and clonally propagated plants, with the addition of a few Vitis-specific standards. A mechanism was set up for the mobilization of small funds to respond to critical situations threatening the survival of important germplasm. On the last day an excursion was organized to Ketsch Island, a nature protection area where a population of Vitis sylvestris occurs naturally and is being monitored.