PGR Forum European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum Nigel Maxted and Shelagh Kell

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

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 Euro+Med PlantBase

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

CWR information infrastructure PGR Forum Crop Wild Relative Database Nomenclatural, Crop and CWR Status PGR Forum Partners Euro+Med PlantBase Nomenclatural Updating Ancillary Data Source 1 Crop Wild Relative Data Users Ancillary Data Source 2 Ancillary Data Source n Ancillary Data Source 3 Mansfeld’s Database Crop Updating 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 Euro+Med and Mansfeld to ensure nomenclatural consistency The CWR database Version 1.0 of European CWR list has been produced by accessing two primary data sources: Euro+Med PlantBase (via Stephen Jury, University of Reading, UK) and Mansfeld’s 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

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

CWR information infrastructure PGR Forum Crop Wild Relative Database Nomenclatural, Crop and CWR Status PGR Forum Partners Euro+Med PlantBase Nomenclatural Updating Ancillary Data Source 1 Crop Wild Relative Data Users Ancillary Data Source 2 Ancillary Data Source N Ancillary Data Source 3 Mansfeld’s Database Crop Updating Ex situ data  Link to EURISCO! Other data types will include:  Geographical data  Biological data  Population level data  Threats  Conservation measures

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

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

PGR Forum European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum