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ISSN 1742-3627 (Print) ISSN 1742-3694 (Online) Crop wild relative Issue 6 January 2008 d Relative Specialist Group The newsletter of the Crop Wil Conserving plant genetic diversity for use now and in the future 2 Crop wild relative Issue 6 January 2008 Editorial...................................................................................................................................... 3 Using CWR in crop improvement Daucus species promise a glossy future in carrot production Lothar Frese and Thomas Nothnagel .................................................................................. 4 Festulolium loliaceum, an understudied natural UK grass hybrid species that may provide benefits to UK grasslands withstanding the onsets of climate change Mike Humphreys and John Harper ....................................................................................... 7 Regional reports Crop wild relatives in the Pacific region Tevita Kete............................................................................................................................10 Catalogue reveals stark statistics about crop wild relative conservation in Europe Shelagh Kell and Nigel Maxted.............................................................................................12 Editors: Country reports Nigel Maxted Ehsan Dulloo Conservation of crop wild relatives in India R.K. Arora and Anjula Pandey ..............................................................................................16 Assistant editor: Major crops and crop wild relative of Russia Shelagh Kell Tamara N. Smekalova ..........................................................................................................18 Design and layout: Crop wild relative features Shelagh Kell Diversity and conservation of crop wild relatives growing on Arailer mountain (Armenia) Front cover: Vavilovia Aleksanyan, N.G., Asatryan, A.T. and Gabrielyan, I.G.........................................................20 formosa (Stev.) Fed., a wild relative of the pea, growing The impact of climate change on crop wild relatives in Bolivia on scree slopes in Armenia. Beatriz Zapata Ferrufino, Margoth Atahuachi and Annie Lane.............................................22 Photo: Ivan Gabrielyan, Institute of Botany, Armenian Spice and medicinal plants in the Nordic and Baltic countries Academy of Sciences. Åsmund Asdal.......................................................................................................................23 Towards improved in situ management of Europe’s crop wild relatives Issue 6 has been supported Lothar Frese..........................................................................................................................24 by the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic On high-mountain pea, Vavilovia formosa (Stev.) Fed. (Fabaceae) in Armenia Resources (ECPGR). Akopian, J.A. and Gabrielyan, I.G.........................................................................................26 A note from the IUCN Species Programme Jane Smart and Julie Griffin........................................................................................................28 Correspondence address: Nigel Maxted, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK Email: [email protected] Copyright © University of Birmingham 2008. All rights reserved. Published on behalf of the IUCN/SSC Crop Wild Relative Specialist Group. Crop wild relative Issue 6 January 2008 3 eaders of Crop wild relative will be aware that issues Wild Relative Conservation and Use held in Sicily, Italy in Sep- 1–5 of the newsletter were published under the aus- tember 2005. We are exploring options for formalizing the Global pices of the successful EC-funded PGR Forum project Strategy as an add-on to the FAO International Treaty on Plant R (http://www.pgrforum.org). Before the project ended in Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and in 2005, the seeds had already been sown for the establishment of the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). We the Crop Wild Relative Specialist Group (CWRSG) of the IUCN urgently need to get governments on board and agree to the Species Survival Commission (SSC) and it was decided that provisions of the Global Strategy to ensure that CWR are at Crop wild relative would become the CWRSG’s regular newslet- least being formally recognized as a priority for conservation ter. After a short hiatus in its publication, we are therefore ex- action. However, as we all know, it takes a long time for policy tremely pleased to bring you this issue—the first to be published and legislation to become ‘fixed’ and we cannot afford to wait under the auspices of the CWRSG. before taking action. The CWRSG can therefore be used as a This is the longest issue of Crop wild relative to be published vehicle for enacting and/or promoting many of the targets of the so far, and as we are now planning to publish the newsletter Global Strategy. The group can also act as a lobbying instru- annually, we hope that future issues will be equally well packed ment, since the voices from many experts across the globe are with news about crop wild relative (CWR) conservation and use. louder than just one! We urge all readers of this newsletter to In this issue, we have introduces some specific themes. First, review both the Global Strategy and the CWRSG Strategic Plan we have two fascinating articles about the potential use of CWR (included in the operational strategy) to see where you can in crop improvement—after all, the primary reason for conserv- make a contribution. Please contact the CWRSG Co-Chairs, Dr. ing these species is because they are potential gene donors for Ehsan Dulloo ([email protected]) or Dr. Nigel Maxted crop improvement and future food security for ([email protected]) if you would like to offer the world’s ever-increasing human population. to contribute to the work of the group or to dis- This will be continued as a regular theme, so we cuss aspects of the CWRSG. will be seeking further articles on the use of Recently, it has been estimated that there CWR in crop improvement for future issues. We are around 216,000 CWR species globally; how- then have two pieces focusing on CWR diversity ever, this includes the widest range of cultivated and conservation at regional level—one for the plants possible. If we narrow this list down to Pacific region and one for Europe. We will be those that are wild relatives of the major and publishing regional overviews in each issue and minor food crops, we are left with 10,739 species will therefore be contacting the CWRSG Re- and if we remove all but the primary and secon- gional Network Leaders, asking them to contrib- dary wild relatives, we are left with only 1200 ute to future issues. Following the regional per- species (Maxted and Kell, 2008). These are spectives, we have two commentaries on CWR crude estimates based on our knowledge of the diversity and conservation at national level, for CWR flora of Europe and the Mediterranean India and Russia. Again, we will be seeking region. Nonetheless, these figures do make the national reviews of CWR diversity and conserva- initial task of conserving global CWR diversity a tion for each future issue of Crop wild relative. little less daunting. If we can initially assess the The final section hosts a range of features on CWR diversity and conservation status of these 1200 species and secure their con- conservation and the newsletter concludes with a note from the servation both in situ and ex situ, we will have gone a long way IUCN Species Programme, under which the CWRSG operates. towards ensuring that the highest priority genetic diversity is Those of you who are already members of the CWRSG will conserved and made available for use in crop improvement already be aware of current and planned CWRSG activities. programmes as a contribution to future worldwide food security. Since the group was formally established in 2006, we have been Of course, we realize that the task is not a straightforward one working on building the foundations of the group—inviting mem- and that there are many complex issues to be addressed; not bers, including Regional Network Leaders, and producing the least because of the varying priorities of individual nations. How- group’s operational strategy. The operational strategy, which ever, we now have the foundations in place to begin work in can be read online at http://www.pgrforum.org/documents/cwrsg/ earnest to systematically conserve CWR genetic resources glob- cwrsg_operational_strategy.pdf, provides the structure within ally. By working together, we can make a real impact! which the CWRSG operates. It includes a detailed Strategic We hope you find this issue of Crop wild relative to be a Plan for 2006–2010, listing the group’s proposed actions and stimulating read. Please let us know what you would like to see providing a benchmark from which to evaluate our progress. in future issues and please send us your contributions for the Some of the targets included in the Plan are quite ambitious, but next issue! we do have the expertise and power available to achieve them, given the will and drive to take them forward. Some of the ac- Literature cited tions are related directly to the targets included in the draft Maxted, N. and Kell, S. (2008) Establishment of a Network for the In Global Strategy for Crop Wild Relative Conservation and Use Situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives: