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Global Plan of Action 64. Assessment:
Natural ecosystems hold important plant genetic resources
for food and agriculture, including endemic and threatened
wild crop relatives and wild plants for food production. Many are not managed sustainably.
This genetic diversity, because
of interactions which generate new biodiversity, is potentially
an economically important component of natural ecosystems
and cannot be maintained ex situ. Unique and particularly diverse
populations of these genetic resources must be protected in
situ when they are under threat. Most of the world's 8500 national
parks and other protected areas, however, were established
with little specific concern for the conservation of wild
crop relatives and wild plants for food production. Management plans for protected
and other areas are not usually broad enough to conserve genetic
diversity for these species to complement other conservation
approaches. 65. Many protected areas are
under threat of degradation and destruction. Moreover, they cannot now provide
comprehensive geographical and biological coverage of the
diversity of many species. It is thus necessary to complement
the conservation in protected areas with measures aimed at
conserving genetic diversity which lies outside such areas.
In situ conservation implies
comprehensive planning in which protection, production and
genetic conservation aspects are considered and made complementary. 66. Longterm objectives:
To promote conservation of genetic resources of wild crop
relatives and wild plants for food production in protected
areas and on other lands not explicitly listed as protected
areas. 67. Intermediate objectives:
To initiate planning and management practices which take into
account wild crop relatives and wild plants for food production.
To clearly identify which wild
crop relatives and wild plants for food production need to
be protected in situ. To gain knowledge of the uses,
in particular by women, of wild plants for food production
as sources of income and food. 68. To create a better understanding
of the contributions of plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture to local economies, food security, and environmental
health. To improve management and planning
and promote complementarity between conservation and sustainable
use in parks and protected areas by inter alia broadening
the participation of local communities in these processes.
69. To establish better communication
and coordination between various institutes and organizations
engaged in in situ conservation and land use management, nationally
and regionally. To conserve genetic diversity
for these species to complement other conservation approaches.
70. Policy/strategy: Governments,
subject to national legislation, with the cooperation of the
relevant UN bodies and regional, intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations and taking into account the views of farmers
and communities living near protected areas should: (a) include as appropriate, among
the purposes and priorities of national parks and protected
areas, the conservation of plant genetic resources for food
and agriculture, including appropriate forage species, wild
relatives of crop plants and species gathered wild for food;
(b) consider integrating conservation
and management of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture
in national land use plans; (c) support the establishment
of national and local objectives for protected area management
through broad based participation, involving in particular,
where they are present, groups most dependent on wild plants
for food production; (d) support the creation of advisory
panels at the appropriate levels, that where appropriate,
involve farmers, indigenous communities, plant genetic resources
scientists, local government officials, and community leaders,
to guide management of protected areas, according to national
rules and regulations; (e) recognize the rights of indigenous
communities to PGRFA in protected areas; (f) recognize that women are
a valuable source of information on the feasibility of in
situ conservation and management practices; (g) support indigenous and local
communities efforts to manage wild crop relatives and wild
plants for food production in protected areas, or where existing
aboriginal or treaty rights are recognized; (h) review existing environmental
impact statement requirement to incorporate an assessment
of the likely effect of the proposed activity on local biodiversity
for food and agriculture, particularly on wild crop relatives;
(i) integrate genetic conservation
objectives in the sustainable management of wild crop relatives
and wild plants for food production in protected areas and
other managed resource areas. 71. Governments with the cooperation
of the relevant UN bodies and regional, intergovernmental
and nongovernmental organizations and the farming, indigenous
and local communities living in nonprotected areas, should
seek, where possible and appropriate, to: (a) Establish conservation of
wild croprelatives and wild plants for food production as
an integral component of landuse planning; (b) Encourage local communities
to conserve and manage wild crop relatives and wild plants
for food production, and provide for their participation in
decisions relating to such local conservation and management.
72. As appropriate and feasible,
protected area policies should promote and sustain rather
than restrict those human activities that maintain and enhance
genetic diversity within and among plant species. Participatory approaches to protected
and related area management should also be encouraged to reconcile
the sometimes conflicting goals of conservation and local
livelihood security. 73. Capacity: Governments should,
whenever possible, and as appropriate: (a) Develop a prioritized plan,
particularly for those ecosystems in which high levels of
diversity related to plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture are found, and conduct national reviews to identify
those management practices needed to protect the desired level
of genetic diversity for wild croprelatives and wild plants
for food production (b) Assist local communities
in their efforts to identify, catalogue and manage wild crop
relatives and wild foods (c) Monitor the holdings, the
distribution and diversity of wild crop relatives and wild
plants for food production, integrate and link data and information
from in situ conservation programmes with that of ex situ
programmes and encourage private and non governmental organizations
to do likewise 74. Coordination/administration:
Governments should, as appropriate: (a) Link protected area planning
and management with institutions responsible for the conservation
and sustainable use of wild relatives of crop plants and wild
plants for food production, such as centres for crop genetic
resources, national crop genetic resources coordinators, and
botanical gardens (b) Designate focal points, as
appropriate, to catalyze coordination of in situ protection
programmes and liaise with other countries in the region (c) Establish mechanisms for
periodically reviewing and modifying conservation plans 75. This activity is closely
linked with: |
