Swedish Crop Wild Relatives: towards a national strategy for in situ conservation of CWR

Jens Weibull,Jade Phillips

doi:10.46265/genresj.2020.1.17-24

Jens Weibull, Jade Phillips

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.46265/genresj.2020.1.17-24

Copy DOI

Abstract

In 2015, the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland) initiated a project to help strengthen the efforts of conservation and use of crop wild relatives (CWR) across the region. Policy recommendations that were put forward included creating national strategies for each Nordic country and adopting and implementing complementary in situ conservation as the main approach for safeguarding CWR across the region. The present work explores in greater detail the situation for Sweden. Taxa rich areas and areas where potential data bias may be prevalent are located. An eco-geographic map is constructed to help determine how genetic diversity may be portioned across the country within populations of taxa. An in situ complementarity analysis accounting for taxa richness, eco-geographic richness and the protected area network in the country is also presented. Possible reasons for diverging results, as compared to the regional analysis, are discussed. The document serves as a starting point for further in-depth research on CWR distribution, conservation and use within Sweden.

Highlights

Already back in 1979, the Nordic countries established what was probably the first regional genebank for the ex situ conservation of seeds of agricultural and horticultural plants
In line with the Nordic level approach, priority crop wild relatives (CWR) for Sweden were identified from the regional list of priority CWR (Fitzgerald et al, 2018)
Initial steps are being taken to proceed with concrete measures within the UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserve Kristianstad Vattenrike

Summary

Introduction

Already back in 1979, the Nordic countries established what was probably the first regional genebank for the ex situ conservation of seeds of agricultural and horticultural plants. The () Nordic Gene Bank stood as an example of foresight regarding long-term conservation and use of plant genetic resources. Occasional attempts were made to raise the issue of in situ conservation at the Nordic level (Blixt et al, 1992), concrete work and activities never took off. Decades later, during the period 2015-2019, the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland) joined forces and initiated two subsequent projects to help strengthen the efforts of conservation and use of crop wild relatives (CWR) across the region. Policy recommendations were put forward that included creating national strategies for each Nordic country, and adopting and implementing complementary in situ conservation as the main approach for safeguarding CWR across the region (Weibull et al, 2016)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion