BIODIVERSITY AND LOCAL GENETIC RESOURCES: FROM KNOWLEDGE TO EXPLOITATION

Since the early 1990s worldwide efforts concerned with safeguarding and the sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity have been strongly supported by numerous initiatives, in particular the Agenda 21, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, the Global Plan of Action (GPA) in 1996 for the conservation and the sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the FAO International Treaty on PGRFA (2004, www.planttreaty.org).
To implement these agreements, a series of initiatives, at the international, regional and national level, have been undertaken.
The European meeting on plant genetic resources held in Nitra (Slovakia) in 1995 recommended that the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR) be used as a platform to facilitate the implementation of the GPA. The ECP/GR, a collaborative programme on PGR among most European countries, was founded in 1980 and is running within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), coordinated by Bioversity International (formerly IPGRI) in Rome.
The European Union is supporting initiatives aiming at the recovery, conservation, characterization, documentation and exploitation of plant genetic resources by funding projects within its AGRI GEN RES programmes.
In addition, the European member states have developed national projects that exploit their local PGR, an important source of genetic traits for breeding activities, which are of direct economic (traditional products, agritourism) and environmental importance.

I International Symposium on Horticulture in Europe

C. Fideghelli, P. Engel

horticulture, fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, breeding, production, landscape

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.817.31