Valorisation of genetic resources workshop
23-24 June 2020 (online)
The aim of the workshop on Valorisation of genetic resources in agricultural and forest systems was to elaborate key messages and recommendations to stakeholders, policy makers and researchers on how to consider genetic resources in an agro-ecology and evolution-oriented forestry perspective.
On 23 June, three keynote speakers provided perspectives on agroecology or evolution-oriented forestry from three different angles – policy, research and production:
- Manuel Luque, FEAGAS; Spain on ‘How Animal and Forest are interacting in the production of typical products’
- Anne Mottet & Roswitha Baumung, FAO, on ‘Agroecology: the role of diversity and how we can move forward with better evidence’
- Gwendal Restoux, INRAE, on ‘Contribution of genetic diversity to the performance of agroecological systems’
The webinars were open to project partners, experts, stakeholders, students - the recordings are available below.
On 24 June, project partners and selected experts (20 participants from 9 countries) discussed the key topics emerging form the webinars. The participants developed a list of nine main messages supported by arguments and recommendations for the valorisation and conservation of crop, animal and forest genetic resources in the agro-ecology framework (this is a preliminary draft, final version still to come):
- Diverse genetic resources (GR) are key elements in the agro-ecology framework
- Genetic resources managers have a key role to play in the agro-ecological transition
- Research, policy, managers and users’ communities on genetic resources must be connected
- The agroecology framework provides an opportunity to look at landscape/territory scale which is also relevant for GR management
- Human dimension and local knowledge are important for sustainable use of GenRes and cultural heritage
- Integrated GR management contributes to increase biodiversity as a factor of resilience of production systems in the agroecology framework
- The agro-ecology framework takes advantage of local context specificities
- A holistic approach is needed to consider all levels of diversity and time scale in an agroecological perspective
- Reliable and abundant data are needed to support a better valorisation of the genetic resources into an agro-ecological framework
Webinars
These webinars were organized in the context of the workshop.
Gwendal Restoux, INRAE talks about the ‘Contribution of genetic diversity to the performance of agroecological systems’. The presentation shows the relevance of genetic resources for sustainability of agricultural and forest systems, in terms of adaptiveness, stability and resilience. Future research needs are discussed.
Manuel Luque from FEAGAS, Spain talks about ‘How Animal and Forest are interacting in the production of typical products’. He presents the perspectives on agroecology and adaptive forest management from the point of view of producers.
Anne Mottet & Roswitha Baumung, FAO, talk about ‘Agroecology: the role of diversity and how we can move forward with better evidence'. Diversity is key to the agroecological transition for more sustainable food systems: the need of consolidated evidence is presented from the FAO perspective.
