Conclusion
Genetic resources, including aquatic and terrestrial plants, animals and micro-organisms, must be viewed as a vital component in strategies to develop and implement climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices. The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Integration of Genetic Diversity into National Climate Change Adaptation Planning (FAO, 2015a) outlines the cross-sectoral actions that could be undertaken to improve the sustainable management of genetic resources to support climate-smart agriculture. These actions are summarized in Box B8.5).
Box B8.5 Possible actions to improve the sustainable management of genetic resources to cope with climate change
a) Characterization, evaluation, inventory and monitoring of genetic resources
- Develop standard methods to identify and select potentially valuable species, varieties, breeds and populations.
- Make inventories of agricultural and forest ecosystems and identify genetic variants related to specific environmental features that are of potential interest for climate change adaptation.
- Collect information on distribution of species, varieties, breeds and populations that have been prioritized on the basis of their socio-economic importance and provision of ecosystem services.
- Collect scientific and traditional knowledge relevant to adaptation and use of species, varieties, breeds and populations.
- Establish monitoring programmes at national, subnational and community levels to assess the risks and vulnerability of prioritized species, varieties, breeds and populations, and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation measures.
b) Sustainable use and development of genetic resources
- Develop and implement crop, animal, tree or fish species improvement programmes to provide materials that can be used to adapt agricultural production systems to climate change, and give long-term support for the evaluation and use of wild relatives.
- Support community programmes for the reintroduction, maintenance and improvement of traditional crop varieties, locally adapted breeds, agroforestry and traditional forestry areas, and traditional fisheries management practices.
- Identify and put in place measures to support, protect and restore diversity within production systems at the landscape, community and farm levels.
- Support the adoption of improved soil management practices (e.g. no-till practices and conservation agriculture).
- Monitor and evaluate pollinators and the services they provide; identify their risks and vulnerabilities with respect to climate change; and implement measures to maintain or improve pollination.
- Strengthen water management in terms of quality and quantity at the landscape and seascape, community and farm levels through the sustainable management of aquatic resources.
c) Conservation of genetic resources
- Prioritize species, varieties, breeds and populations, including wild relatives, for conservation on the basis of their socio-economic importance and the provision of ecosystem services.
- Develop and implement ex situ conservation plans for prioritized species, varieties, breeds and populations and strengthen information systems to improve access to genetic resources that can be used as potential options for climate change adaptation.
- Develop and implement in situ conservation plans for prioritized species, varieties, breeds and populations.
Many of the genetic resources needed may need to come from other parts of the world. In addition to improving the availability of traditional breeds and varieties, provenances of forest trees likely to be more adapted to changed conditions and to populations of fish species with desirable adaptive characteristics, actions should also aim at facilitating movement of materials and supporting regional and international collaboration.
Adapted from FAO, 2015a.