At its Third and Fourth Sessions (Rome, April 1989 and April 1991) the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources recommended that the Secretariat of the Commission should periodically prepare a report on the State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources, with the cooperation of other bodies concerned. The Commission agreed that the objectives of the State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources should be: (i) to describe, in detail, the current status of significant activities related to plant genetic resources; (ii) to identify gaps in the current knowledge and understanding of the extent of diversity, availability and utilization of plant genetic resources; (iii) to identify gaps in existing databases; and (iv) to propose priorities for action on a global scale. The Commission further agreed that the “State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources” should cover information on both major crops and commodities, and on key forest species.
As a step towards gathering information on the current status of activities on the conservation and use of plant genetic resources and to identify specific needs for the preparation of a Global Plan of Action also called for by the FAO Commission, a questionnaire on national plant genetic resources activities related to agricultural species senso stricto, was sent by the Director-General of FAO to Ministries of Agriculture of Member Nations on 29 May 1992. A complementary questionnaire on forestry species, was sent on 4 March 1993 by the Assistant Director-General, Forestry Department, to all Heads of Forest Services in FAO's 160 Member Countries.
The forestry questionnaire aimes at gathering information of relevance to forest genetic resources in response to the request from the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources, in response to a number of related recommendations passed at recent Sessions of the FAO Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources and in response to action called for by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1992). The information gathered through it, will be used to develop and implement the Global Plan of Action on Plant Genetic Resources described above, and will furthermore serve as a basis for enhancing coordinated action aimed at the conservation and wise utilization of forest genetic resources.
The forestry questionnaire includes the following sections:
The covering letter to the questionnaire requested the Heads of Forest Services to coordinate a nation-wide reply to the questions posed in it; however, to ensure maximum dissemination, the attention of a great number of institutes and individuals was also drawn to the survey, requesting them to input to the study through the national focal point. By September 1993, more than 80 replies from close to 70 countries, had been received to the forestry questionnaire sent out in March 1993. The assistance of readers of FGRI is solicited to ensure as complete as possible a response to the questionnaire, both as regards country couverage and coverage of activities within countries.
For additional information on the survey, please contact the Chief Forest Resources Development Branch, Forest Resources Division, Forestry Department, FAO, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome (Italy).
Forest Genetic Resources Information no. 21. FAO, Rome (1993)
