Core descriptors for in situ conservation of crop wild relatives V.1.
17/10/2013
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The wild relatives of our crops – called Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) – are used and have been used since the beginning of agriculture, to improve the yields, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and nutritional quality of crops. Their conservation, especially in their natural surroundings (in situ), is crucial for agricultural research and development.
In order to increase our knowledge about their conservation, UNEP and GEF installed the global and multi-country Crop Wild Relatives Project in 2004. Bioversity International coordinated the project. One of the outcomes of the project is the publication:
Thormann I, Alercia A, Dulloo ME. 2013. Core descriptors for in situ conservation of crop wild relatives v.1. Bioversity International, Rome, Italy
Describing Crop Wild Relatives
The publication provides a framework to describe Crop Wild Relatives in detail. The direct aim is to facilitate the compilation and exchange of in situ conservation data and to support the development of national and international information management systems.
The ultimate goal is to stimulate a more efficient management and conservation of CWR resources.
The proposed core CWR descriptors cover on a first and second level the areas down below (see the publication, for all levels).
| Taxon | Scientific name | Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) are wild plant species which are closely related to crops. They are a vital resource by providing a pool of genetic variation that can be used in breeding new and better adapted varieties of crops that are resistant to stress, disease, drought and other factors. They will be increasingly important in allowing crops to adapt to the impacts of climate, thus safeguarding future agricultural production. (Resource: A Manual of in situ Conservation) | |
| Common name | |||
| Endangerment status according to IUCN criteria | |||
| Endangerment status according to national criteria | |||
| Use of taxon | |||
| Remarks | |||
| Site | Site location | ||
| Land use | |||
| IUCN habitat classification | |||
| Site protection | |||
| Remarks | |||
| Population | Monitoring data | ||
| Collecting data | |||
| Ex situ conservation data | |||
| Population size | |||
| IUCN threat classification | |||
| Conservation actions in place | |||
| Remarks |
Note that the descriptors are compatible with Bioversity’s crop descriptor lists, the FAO/Bioversity List of Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors V.2 and IUCN red listing categories and criteria v. 3.1.
Other Information Management products related to CWR
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Crop Wild Relatives Ontology
- European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum (PGR-Forum): Crop Wild Relative Markup Language (CWRML).
- Bioversity International: Developing crop descriptor lists - guidelines for developers
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This post is based on information available at:
"Core descriptors for in situ conservation of crop wild relatives v.1." Bioversity International