Webinar: Preview of the "Genetic Resources Strategy for Europe"
12 November 2021 12:00-13:30 CET
"Preview of the Genetic Resources Strategy for Europe"
The webinar took place on 12 November 2021 and you can view it here.
Previous webinars
These webinars were organized in the context of the Feedback Workshop on the European Genetic Resources Strategy on 24-26 Nov 2020..
Anne Teller, European Commission 'Genetic Resources aspects in the framework of the EU's Green Deal and relevant Strategies', Monday 26 October, 11:30-12:00
Irene Hoffmann, 'FAO relevant initiatives on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Tuesday 27 October, 11:30-12:00
Pierre Schellekens: EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) initiatives relevant to Genetic Resources, Friday 30 October, 11:30-12:00
Nigel Maxted and Shelagh Kell: Securing genetic resources in Europe – Development of the European Genetic Resources, Friday 13 November, 11:30-12:00
Jade Phillips, Enrico Sturaro and Tor Myking: Conservation of Genetic resources at landscape level (demonstration cases), 16 November, 11:30-12:00
These webinars were organized in the context of the project workshop on ex situ conservation in the different genetic resources domains (17-19 Mar 2020, Paris).
Sean Hoban 'Conserving genetic diversity in botanic gardens: calculating how much to conserve'
In this webinar, Sean Hoban from the Morton Arboretum in Illinois introduces the challenge for an efficient and effective collection strategy to safeguard the high genetic and ecological diversity in as few samples as possible, providing scientifically grounded recommendations for the number of individuals that need to be conserved, and how to collect from the wild and manage collections over time. More information here
Chris Cockel on “The Role of Botanic Gardens in Ex situ Seed Conservation – Perspectives from Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank”
The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, opened in 2000, but the first concerted effort to collect the seeds of wild plant species by Kew took place in the 1960s, with the seed conservation function transferred to Kew’s botanic garden at Wakehurst Place in West Sussex in 1973. By 2009, 10% of the world orthodox seed flora had been banked at the MSB. At the start of 2020 the seed of over 40,000 species from 190 countries and territories has been conserved in over 95,000 seed collections, totalling over 2.3 billion individual seeds. Three important seed conservation projects will be highlighted as case studies to illustrate the role that a botanic garden can play in plant genetic resource conservation and research, both ex situ and in situ – the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change (Crop Wild Relatives) Project, the UK National Tree Seed Project, and the Garfield Weston Global Tree Seed Bank Project.
More webinars organized in the context of a workshop on valorization of genetic resources (23-24 June 2020) can be found here
The following webinars were held in the context of this workshop on phytosanitary barriers for genetic resources on 24 Feb 2021:
Yannis Karamitsios (European Commission/DG SANTE) provided an overview of the EU plant health regulation (2016/2031), which came into effect in December 2019 and prescribes measures to prevent the introduction and spread of transboundary regulated pests. While mainly applying to trade in plant and plant products, the regulation includes provisions for scientific research and breeding, which were highlighted. The regulation is subject to amendments and the presentation reflects its current form as on 16 February 2021.
The international potato center (CIP) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) organized a webinar as part of the CGIAR International Year of Plant Health Webinar Series highlighted the importance of germplasm (phytosanitary) health in the prevention of transboundary pest and disease spread, as well as the propagation of clean planting material to be used locally. A panel of experts discussed policy, technical and gender issues, advocating for an effective and efficient global system of conservation and sharing which depends on sound processes for ensuring germplasm health.
Lava Kumar (IITA, Nigeria) provided an overview of the activities of CGIAR genebanks, which conserve and share large amounts of genetic resources worldwide. CGIAR genebanks are implementing Germplasm Health Units (GHU) working together to assist scientists to safely distribute plant germplasm, prevent pest outbreaks, safeguard biodiversity and ensure centers’ compliance with domestic and international procedures (Kumar et al, 2021). He also introduced the GreenPass initiative, which aims at creating a quality assurance system for genebanks to facilitate material exchange.
Fernando Tejerina (MAPA, Spain) – shared experiences from the Animal GR domain, describing how AnGR genebanks function and how their work is affected by national and regional animal health regulations, with multiple elements difficult to apply to the work with endangered breeds. In 2021 a new EU animal health regulation comes into effect, acknowledging the important work of animal genebanks and providing derogations for the exchange of germinal products between genebanks. Practical implementation of this derogation among its members is one of the activities of EUGENA, the European network of animal genebanks.
