30
2 Genetic Resources: Status, Development, Losses, and Conservation
plants for food and agriculture. Following these common quantification methods,
the centers of high diversity for biodiversity are tropical forests. Drier ecosystems
are, on the whole, far more important for crop resources. The evolutionary process
is the dominating force for the development of biodiversity, whereas the
evolutionary process is of only minor importance for the development of
agrobiodiversity. Breeding activities of farmers over thousands of years, and more
recently the scientific breeding, are determining the diversity of agricultural crops.
The expansion of domesticated species is associated with human activities
migration and trade. Hence, diversity of domesticated species is systematically
spread out by humankind. The diversity of wild plants is fixed to their region of
origin in general, and is transferred only unsystematically to other sites. If these
imported or "exotic" plants are strong enough, they establish themselves at the
new place. The extinction of plant genetic resources is commonly characterized
by the amount of existing species, whereby the number of varieties per crop
species characterizes the extinction rate for PGRF A. Because of the lack of
incentives for continuous utilization of traditional varieties, the amount of
varieties per crop is decreasing significantly, representing the primary cause of
extinction. The main cause of extinction of the genetic resources of wild plants is
the anthropogen induced changes of habitats (modification, fragmentation, and
destruction, see Chap. 2.2).
Because of the high amount of plant genetic resources and the importance of
the interspecies linkages, in situ conservation is and will stay the predominant
conservation method for biodiversity in the future. Consequently, habitat
conservation, protected area, and other in situ strategies are aiming at reducing
human activities in areas of high diversity. Ex situ conservation is only of
importance for working collections. After more than 50 years of intensive
collections of PGRF A, ex situ collections are the preferred conservation method
for agrobiodiversity, although the importance of in situ conservation is starting to
increase, mainly as on-farm management. In contrary to wild plant genetic
resources the general in situ conservation strategy to maintain PGRF A is to
promote the utilization of traditional varieties by providing some kind of
incentives to the farmers. The comparative advantage of in situ conservation can
be exploited and the genetic resources maintained in an evolutionary process only
by utilizing the old cultivars or landraces.
The externalities may be internalized for biodiversity conservation by making
the resource users (or destroyers) account for the environmental damage they
cause. In agrobiodiversity there is, however, no legal or moral right to make
farmers accountable for the damage they cause by not utilizing farmers' varieties
any more, i.e., the polluter pays principle is applicable to biodiversity
conservation in general, but not to the concepts for agrobiodiversity conservation.
Although the operational utility value for genetic resources represents a
demand for genetically coded information, at this point of time there are still
differences on the operational level: the plant breeding industry requires specific
traits, specific functions, e.g., for certain resistance, or certain salt tolerance at a
certain development stage of a certain crop.
2 Genetic Resources: Status, Development, Losses, and Conservation
plants for food and agriculture. Following these common quantification methods,
the centers of high diversity for biodiversity are tropical forests. Drier ecosystems
are, on the whole, far more important for crop resources. The evolutionary process
is the dominating force for the development of biodiversity, whereas the
evolutionary process is of only minor importance for the development of
agrobiodiversity. Breeding activities of farmers over thousands of years, and more
recently the scientific breeding, are determining the diversity of agricultural crops.
The expansion of domesticated species is associated with human activities
migration and trade. Hence, diversity of domesticated species is systematically
spread out by humankind. The diversity of wild plants is fixed to their region of
origin in general, and is transferred only unsystematically to other sites. If these
imported or "exotic" plants are strong enough, they establish themselves at the
new place. The extinction of plant genetic resources is commonly characterized
by the amount of existing species, whereby the number of varieties per crop
species characterizes the extinction rate for PGRF A. Because of the lack of
incentives for continuous utilization of traditional varieties, the amount of
varieties per crop is decreasing significantly, representing the primary cause of
extinction. The main cause of extinction of the genetic resources of wild plants is
the anthropogen induced changes of habitats (modification, fragmentation, and
destruction, see Chap. 2.2).
Because of the high amount of plant genetic resources and the importance of
the interspecies linkages, in situ conservation is and will stay the predominant
conservation method for biodiversity in the future. Consequently, habitat
conservation, protected area, and other in situ strategies are aiming at reducing
human activities in areas of high diversity. Ex situ conservation is only of
importance for working collections. After more than 50 years of intensive
collections of PGRF A, ex situ collections are the preferred conservation method
for agrobiodiversity, although the importance of in situ conservation is starting to
increase, mainly as on-farm management. In contrary to wild plant genetic
resources the general in situ conservation strategy to maintain PGRF A is to
promote the utilization of traditional varieties by providing some kind of
incentives to the farmers. The comparative advantage of in situ conservation can
be exploited and the genetic resources maintained in an evolutionary process only
by utilizing the old cultivars or landraces.
The externalities may be internalized for biodiversity conservation by making
the resource users (or destroyers) account for the environmental damage they
cause. In agrobiodiversity there is, however, no legal or moral right to make
farmers accountable for the damage they cause by not utilizing farmers' varieties
any more, i.e., the polluter pays principle is applicable to biodiversity
conservation in general, but not to the concepts for agrobiodiversity conservation.
Although the operational utility value for genetic resources represents a
demand for genetically coded information, at this point of time there are still
differences on the operational level: the plant breeding industry requires specific
traits, specific functions, e.g., for certain resistance, or certain salt tolerance at a
certain development stage of a certain crop.