A Critical Review of the Current Approaches and Procedures of Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Facilitating Use: Theory and Practice

Dear Colleagues,

Conscious and considerable conservation efforts were initially focused on threatened animals and subsequently on threatened ecosystems. The establishment and management of national parks and other forms of ‘in situ’ nature conservation was the mainstay. Only during the first half of the last century, crop genetic resources started to receive specific attention. A more ‘systematic’ ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources was possibly marked by the collecting expeditions of Vavilov and the publication of the results of his collecting efforts and the subsequent genetic diversity studies that he conducted in the 1920/30s. This initial global and systematic approach was further strengthened during the so-called Green Revolution in the 1960/70s. As a result, more focused research on appropriate tools and methods was initiated, and a global coordination of collecting and conservation efforts was undertaken by FAO and IBPGR. Subsequently, many new institutional and national genebanks were created, in situ and on-farm conservation sites established, and a policy and legal framework was developed and agreed. Simultaneously, increasing attention was being paid to access and use aspects of PGRFA.

The resulting conservation and use framework was never purposely ‘designed’ for efficient and effective long-term conservation; it was rather the result of a spontaneous ‘process’, based on rather limited available scientific knowledge. Additional inputs came from political debates, as part of the coordinating efforts of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Rome, which were loaded with many issues, often unrelated to the subject of effective and efficient (long-term) conservation and use of plant genetic resources, e.g. benefit-sharing and property issues. Since roughly the turn of the 20^th century, significant new technologies and scientific understandings had become available, including molecular genetics and genomics, informatics and bioinformatics, as well as communication technologies. These technologies and the resulting scientific knowledge have revolutionized the possibilities of better understanding crop genetic diversity and improving the conservation and facilitating the use of PGRFA.

The above-mentioned developments are the backdrop of this critical review of the current conservation and use theory, practices, and procedures. It is intended to include succinct descriptions of the current practices/state-of-the-art of routine conservation operations, to be followed by a critical review of what could or should be done (in theory) considering the newly available technologies and scientific knowledge as well as the experiences made with the current system. The scope and focus of this Special Issue will be on the ex situ conservation of plant agrobiodiversity, but due attention is expected for the broader issues and circumstances in which this is embedded. Whereas short- and medium-term conservation aspects are important, especially to facilitate use, the major focus of this Special Issue is intended to be on long-term conservation efforts that are expected to be rational, effective, and efficient, including the related facilitation of use activities. It is further expected that papers contributing to this Special Issue include a section on how to move from the current existing scenario into a more rational, efficient and effective long-term conservation and facilitated use approach. Social, economic, and political considerations and developments should also be addressed, where relevant, to ensure a widely agreeable and supported acceptance of the proposed way forward.

Dr. Johannes M. M. Engels
Dr. Andreas W. Ebert
Guest Editors

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