Register for webinar 28 February 2023

Wild plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: their conservation and sustainable use

Tuesday 28 February 2023

12:00-14:00

REGISTER HERE

Conserving plant diversity in wild habitats is important for enhanced food security and nutrition now and in the future. Wild food plants constitute important components of the diets of many people across the globe, and are rich sources of vital micronutrients. Crop wild relatives, i.e. wild plant species that are genetically related to cultivated crops, are potential sources of traits for crop improvement, especially for developing varieties tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses.

While some of these resources are safeguarded in genebanks, a significant amount of this diversity can only be managed effectively in natural environments, including protected areas, where their adaptive traits continue to evolve. Unfortunately, the continued existence, and hence availability, of many crop wild relatives and wild food plants is threatened by the degradation of natural environments and sometimes the loss of their habitats. There is, therefore, an urgent need to continue to raise awareness of the value of these important resources and to ensure their appropriate conservation and sustainable use at global, regional, national and local levels.

This webinar is a follow up to the First International Multi-stakeholder Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: Technical Consultation on in situ conservation and on-farm management of PGRFA, held in March 2021. Subsequent to the Symposium, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture requested FAO to organize webinars on in situ conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture at regular intervals, in collaboration with the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and other relevant international instruments or organizations. At this event, examples of the continuum of management practices for wild plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, from their conservation to use in breeding improved crop varieties, will be presented and discussed.