34
2 Genetic Resources: Status, Development, Losses, and Conservation
seems that the representatives of most countries implicitly want to conserve all
existing diversity represented by all existing crop varieties still in farmers' fields.
Three fundamental objectives for the conservation of PGRF A can be identified
for the time being:
• Freezing for future utilization through long-term ex situ conservation
conserves PGRF A in their present constellation for future generations to come.
• Intended adaptation of PGRFA to changing environmental conditions by longterm in situ conservation exposes genetic resources to ecological pressure
enforcing natural changes and permitting continued co-evolutionary
development (Vaughan and Chang, 1992).
• Storage for appropriate and convenient access supports the supply of genetic
resources as raw material. The stored collections need to be easy accessible for
on-going breeding programs by scientists, farmers and interactive groups of
farmers and scientists.
Especially in botanical gardens, plant collecting and displaying has a long history
dating back several hundred years. Without having the explicit objective of
conserving plant species, botanical gardens became the first conservation sites for
plants and are still an important conservation institution. The terminology ex situ
conservation is applied to all conservation methods in which the species or
varieties are taken out of their traditional ecosystems and are kept in a
surrounding managed by humans. Starting with the collecting activities of N.r.
Vavilov, until recently, most conservation efforts for agricultural crops have
concentrated on ex situ conservation; particularly on seed genebanks. Great
emphasis was placed on germplasm collecting during the 1970s and 1980s. As a
result, the agricultural plants are presently dominating the ex situ collections by
far. Defined as the conservation of plants in their ecosystems in situ conservation,
has been traditionally used for the conservation of forests and of sites valued for
their wildlife or ecosystems (F AO, 1996a). In recent years, however, the need for
in situ conservation was emphasized, above all at the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development in 1992 (UNEP, 1994a) and during the
preparatory process for the International Technical Conference on PGRF A (F AO,
1996a).
As can be seen, both termini, ex situ as well as in situ conservation, originate
from the conservation activities of wild plants and animals. They were adopted for
the conservation of PGRF A, but do not fit perfectly. On the one hand, PGRF A
can only be maintained by human management, i.e., cultivation in farmers' fields.
Consequently, strictly following the terminology, all PGRFA are in a state of ex
situ management already. On the other hand, in situ conservation for PGRFA is,
sticking to the terminology in the narrow sense, not possible, because
domesticated plants do not have per se a natural habitat, and if left alone in the
natural habitat of their wild relatives, they will have very little chance of survival.
Therefore, the terminology will be applied here in a broader sense, i.e., ex situ
conservation is defined as the management of domesticated plants or parts of
them, outside of their common surroundings, mainly the farm as the agricultural
production unit. Following the broader framework of definition, in situ
2 Genetic Resources: Status, Development, Losses, and Conservation
seems that the representatives of most countries implicitly want to conserve all
existing diversity represented by all existing crop varieties still in farmers' fields.
Three fundamental objectives for the conservation of PGRF A can be identified
for the time being:
• Freezing for future utilization through long-term ex situ conservation
conserves PGRF A in their present constellation for future generations to come.
• Intended adaptation of PGRFA to changing environmental conditions by longterm in situ conservation exposes genetic resources to ecological pressure
enforcing natural changes and permitting continued co-evolutionary
development (Vaughan and Chang, 1992).
• Storage for appropriate and convenient access supports the supply of genetic
resources as raw material. The stored collections need to be easy accessible for
on-going breeding programs by scientists, farmers and interactive groups of
farmers and scientists.
Especially in botanical gardens, plant collecting and displaying has a long history
dating back several hundred years. Without having the explicit objective of
conserving plant species, botanical gardens became the first conservation sites for
plants and are still an important conservation institution. The terminology ex situ
conservation is applied to all conservation methods in which the species or
varieties are taken out of their traditional ecosystems and are kept in a
surrounding managed by humans. Starting with the collecting activities of N.r.
Vavilov, until recently, most conservation efforts for agricultural crops have
concentrated on ex situ conservation; particularly on seed genebanks. Great
emphasis was placed on germplasm collecting during the 1970s and 1980s. As a
result, the agricultural plants are presently dominating the ex situ collections by
far. Defined as the conservation of plants in their ecosystems in situ conservation,
has been traditionally used for the conservation of forests and of sites valued for
their wildlife or ecosystems (F AO, 1996a). In recent years, however, the need for
in situ conservation was emphasized, above all at the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development in 1992 (UNEP, 1994a) and during the
preparatory process for the International Technical Conference on PGRF A (F AO,
1996a).
As can be seen, both termini, ex situ as well as in situ conservation, originate
from the conservation activities of wild plants and animals. They were adopted for
the conservation of PGRF A, but do not fit perfectly. On the one hand, PGRF A
can only be maintained by human management, i.e., cultivation in farmers' fields.
Consequently, strictly following the terminology, all PGRFA are in a state of ex
situ management already. On the other hand, in situ conservation for PGRFA is,
sticking to the terminology in the narrow sense, not possible, because
domesticated plants do not have per se a natural habitat, and if left alone in the
natural habitat of their wild relatives, they will have very little chance of survival.
Therefore, the terminology will be applied here in a broader sense, i.e., ex situ
conservation is defined as the management of domesticated plants or parts of
them, outside of their common surroundings, mainly the farm as the agricultural
production unit. Following the broader framework of definition, in situ