Publisher : Bioversity International and University of Birmingham
Place of publication :
Publication year : 2017
Thematic : Agro-biodiversity
Language : English
Note
Crop wild relatives are wild plant taxa that are related to crops – including those cultivated
for food, fodder and forage, medicinal, aromatic, ornamental, industrial and environmental
uses – and are potential sources of traits for crop improvement (Maxted et al., 2006, 2008). CWR
have been used increasingly by plant breeders since the early 20th century and have provided
vital genetic diversity for crop improvement – for example, resistance to pests and diseases,
tolerance of environmental conditions such as drought, heat stress and flooding, and nutritional,
flavour, colour, texture and handling qualities (Maxted and Kell, 2009). The transfer of traits
from wild species has been so widespread that most modern cultivars of crops contain some
genes derived from a wild relative (Hajjar and Hodgkin, 2007).
Given their importance for agricultural research and development, their conservation is of
utmost importance (Hunter and Heywood, 2011). In particular, in situ conservation can counter
genetic erosion and allow the continued evolution of adaptive traits, as well as the maintenance
of the breadth of genetic diversity present in the many CWR species – a basis for enhancing the
adaptation of crops to new and changing agro-environments (Maxted et al., 1997).
To ensure effective and efficient in situ conservation of CWR, it is necessary to prepare
strategies and action plans (Dulloo et al., 2017). An essential step in conservation planning is
the prioritization of CWR species, for which a checklist has to be created – a list of CWR taxa
found in a defined geographic unit (usually a country or region), which comprises a list of taxon
names and authorities. This checklist can then be supplemented with information required to
prioritize the taxa (e.g. the socio-economic value of the related crops, the actual and potential
utilization value of the CWR for crop improvement, its distribution, and its Red List status)
resulting in an annotated checklist. Finally an inventory is produced which is a list of priority
CWR taxa and ancillary information (e.g. information used to prioritize the checklist, species
biology, and current conservation actions) (Maxted et al., 2013).
This set of descriptors aims to facilitate the collection of key information in a standardized
and comparable format for the development of CWR checklists and inventories. For each
descriptor, a brief explanation of content and type of required data is provided to assist in the
computerized compilation and analysis of the data.
Go to source
Keywords : octocorals
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
