PGR Forum

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PGR Forum

• European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment
  and Conservation Forum
• Presented by Shelagh Kell

www.pgrforum.org
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What is PGR Forum?

• A European forum to debate methodologies for the
  conservation of crop wild relatives in Europe,
  with a focus on in situ conservation
• Project participants represent a broad
  cross-section of the professional PGR community,
  including conservationists, taxonomists, plant
  breeders, information managers, policy-makers and
  end-users

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Who is involved?

• The project brings together national and regional
  partner institutes from 21 countries across
  Europe, plus partners representing IPGRI and IUCN
  -The World Conservation Union
• Advisory and Stakeholder Panels representing a
  number of further national, European and
  International organisations provide additional
  input and feedback on project activities and
  deliverables
• PGR Forum collaborates closely with other
  European projects, including EPGRIS and EuroMed
  PlantBase

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Funding

• A Thematic Network funded under the EC Framework
  5 Programme for Research, Key action 2 Global
  change, climate and biodiversity, 2.2.3
  Assessing and conserving biodiversity
• The project duration is 36 months, with a start
  date of November 1, 2002

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What is a crop wild relative?

• A taxon related to a species of direct
  socio-economic importance
• These include food, fodder and forage crops,
  medicinal plants, condiments, ornamental and
  forestry species, as well as plants used for
  industrial purposes, such as oils and fibres
• Minor crops, underutilised species, and plants
  harvested from the wild are included in this
  definition

Arnica montana Photographer Kerstin
Olsson Courtesy of the Nordic Gene Bank Photo
Archive
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European crop wild relatives

• Europe is as an important centre for crop wild
  relative diversity for example
• Major crops include oats (Avena sativa), sugar
  beet (Beta vulgaris), apple (Malus domestica),
  annual meadow grass (Festuca pratensis), and
  white clover (Trifolium repens) have wild
  relatives in Europe
• Minor crops include arnica (Arnica montana),
  asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), lettuce
  (Lactuca sativa), and sage (Salvia officinalis)

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Why are crop wild relatives important?

• Crop wild relatives are essential components of
  natural and semi-natural habitats, as well as
  agricultural systems, and are critical for
  maintaining ecosystem health their conservation
  and sustainable use is vital for improving
  agricultural production, increasing food
  security, and maintaining the environment

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Why is action needed in Europe?

• It is widely acknowledged that populations of
  crop wild relatives throughout Europe are under
  threat from habitat alteration and loss however,
  their conservation across the region has received
  relatively little attention
• There are a number of initiatives to inventory
  European crop wild relative species at the
  individual country level, but there has not been
  a coordinated effort focusing on the production
  of a comprehensive European catalogue
• While some European crop wild relative material
  is conserved ex situ, their conservation in situ
  has not been the subject of significant debate

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PGR Forum objectives

• Bring together European PGR specialists to
  develop methodologies for the conservation of
  European crop wild relatives
• Establish a European level forum to enhance
  dialogue between national and regional crop wild
  relative conservationists, policy makers and
  end-users, and to promote discourse with the
  broader international stakeholder communities
• Produce an assessment of baseline biodiversity
  data, threat and conservation status for crop
  wild relatives

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PGR Forum objectives

• Debate data structures and documentation
  methodologies, formulate management and
  monitoring regimes, and establish a means of
  assessing genetic erosion and genetic pollution
  as an aid to their conservation in situ
• Communicate project results to European
  stakeholders, policy makers and user groups as a
  means of aiding the efficient and effective
  conservation and use of European crop wild
  relative diversity

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Work programme

• Activities are being implemented through six
  workpackages
• WP1 Produce a database of European CWRs
• WP2 Assess threat and conservation status of
  European CWRs
• WP3 Formulate data structures, data management
  and analysis methodologies for the in situ
  conservation of CWRs

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Work programme

• WP4 Devise population management and monitoring
  methodologies appropriate for the in situ genetic
  conservation of European crop wild relatives
• WP5 Identify and agree on methodologies to
  assess and predict genetic erosion and pollution
  of European crop wild relatives for in situ
  genetic conservation
• WP6 Final conference and product dissemination

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CWR information infrastructure

• The CWR database
• Version 1.0 of European CWR list has been
  produced by accessing two primary data sources
  EuroMed PlantBase (via Stephen Jury, University
  of Reading, UK) and Mansfelds World Database of
  Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (via Helmut
  Knüpffer, IPK, Gaterslaben, Germany)
• This list contains all the genera that contain
  crops and their wild relatives (ornamental and
  forestry taxa to be added later)
• It contains 23,072 taxa
• 813 genera
• 15,031 species

• The CWR database
• Core database containing crop names, uses and
  crop wild relatives
• Accessible via the project web site
• Data verification process will be implemented at
  national level
• Ongoing coordination with EuroMed and Mansfeld
  to ensure nomenclatural consistency

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Data user requirement analysis

• Two broad user groups have been identified
• Plant breeding community
• Conservation community
• Initial survey of user requirements underway
  within PGR Forum
• Extensive user survey will be carried out via PGR
  Forum partners
• Analysis of user requirements and formulation of
  use cases

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CWR information infrastructure

• Other data types will include
• Geographical data
• Biological data
• Population level data
• Threats
• Conservation measures

• Ex situ data
• Link to EURISCO!

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CWR case studies

• A selection of CWR taxa are being used as the
  subject of in-depth data sourcing and gathering
• Case study taxa will be used to
• Test and apply the CWR information infrastructure
• Show comprehensive examples of conservation
  methodologies for CWRs
• Case studies to be presented on project web site

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Conclusion

• European crop wild relatives are a neglected
  resource
• They are threatened with genetic erosion
• There is a need to improve their conservation
• PGR Forum is taking steps to achieve this goal

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PGR Forum

• European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment
  and Conservation Forum

www.pgrforum.org