The title of Conference 13 is "The role of biotechnology for the characterisation and conservation
of crop, forest, animal and fishery genetic resources in developing countries"
It begins on 6 June and runs for four weeks, finishing on Sunday 3 July 2005.
Read the Background Document for the Conference. The 16-page document gives an
overview of the current status of genetic resources in the different food and agricultural sectors;
a brief description of relevant biotechnologies (such as molecular markers, cryopreservation and
reproductive technologies); and a discussion of some potential factors that may influence applications
of biotechnology in developing countries in this area.
As part of the build up to this e-mail conference, an international workshop entitled "The role of biotechnology for
the characterisation and conservation of crop, forestry, animal and fishery genetic resources" was organised
by FAO, the Fondazione per le Biotecnologie, the ECONOGENE project and the Società Italiana di Genetica Agraria
on 5-7 March 2005 in Turin, Italy. Presentations by international experts
there include three sessions on the status of the world's agricultural biodiversity; the use of biotechnology for
conservation of genetic resources; and genetic characterisation of populations and its use in conservation
decision-making respectively. There was also a poster session and a session on the final results from ECONOGENE (a European Union
funded project on biodiversity and conservation of sheep and goat breeds reared in marginal rural areas).
The proceedings of the workshop are now available on the web.
In November 2005, the Summary Document of this conference
was published. This aims to provide a summary of the main arguments and issues discussed during the conference, based
on the 127 messages posted by participants.
