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Annual Report SGRP 2006 Annual Report 2006 sgrp of the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme The CGIAR centres* are 15 international food and environmental research organizations located around the world. The centres pursue a research agenda to improve the lives of the poor, in partnership with national agricultural research systems (NARS), the private sector and civil society. The centres are supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations. In collaboration with NARS, civil society and the private sector, the CGIAR fosters sustainable agricultural growth through high-quality science aimed at benefiting the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources. The CGIAR is co- sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. See www.cgiar.org. The CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) joins the genetic resources activities of the CGIAR centres in a partnership whose goal is to maximize collaboration, particularly in five thematic areas: policy, public awareness and representation, information, knowledge and technology, and capacity building. These thematic areas relate to issues or fields of work that are critical to the success of genetic resources activities. SGRP contributes to the global effort to conserve agricultural, forestry and aquatic genetic resources, and promotes their use in ways that are consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources (ICWG-GR), which includes representatives from the centres and FAO, is the Steering Committee. Bioversity International is the Convening Centre for SGRP and hosts its coordinating Secretariat. See www.sgrp.cgiar.org. Bioversity International is an independent international scientific organization that seeks to improve the well-being of present and future generations by enhancing conservation and the use of agricultural biodiversity on farms and in forests. Bioversity International is one of 15 centres supported by the CGIAR. It has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 other countries worldwide. The * Africa Rice Center - WARDA, Cotonou, organization operates through four programmes: Diversity for Livelihoods, Benin; Bioversity International, Rome, Italy; CIAT Centro Internacional de Understanding and Managing Biodiversity, Global Partnerships, and Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia; Commodities for Livelihoods. See www.bioversityinternational.org. CIFOR Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia; CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento Cover photo: An IRRI researcher inspecting wild rice varieties propagated de Maíz y Trigo, Mexico DF, Mexico; CIP inside a screen house. International Rice Research Institute Centro Internacional de la Papa, Lima, Peru; ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Citation: SGRP. 2007. Annual Report 2006 of the CGIAR System-wide Areas, Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic; ICRISAT International Crops Research Genetic Resources Programme. Bioversity International, Rome, Italy. Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, India; IFPRI International ISBN 978-92-9043-766-6 Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA; IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Bioversity International Nigeria; ILRI International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya; Via dei Tre Denari, 472/a IRRI International Rice Research 00057 Maccarese Institute, Los Baños, Philippines; IWMI Rome, Italy International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka; World Agroforestry Centre - ICRAF, Nairobi, Kenya; WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia. © Bioversity International, 2007 Annual Report 2006 of the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme ii Contents Introduction 1 Regular programme activities 6 Upgrading the genebanks of the CGIAR: 16 a model of collective action Fulfilling commitments to the International Treaty 23 Members of the ICWG-GR in 2006 30 SGRP contacts in Bioversity International 31 SGRP reports and publications 32 2006 financial report 33 Abbreviations and acronyms 34 Centre addresses 36 1 Introduction Introduction The year 2006 was a very importance to the CGIAR came significant one for SGRP in to fruition in 2006. The First a number of respects related Session of the Governing Body The System-wide Genetic to developments in the plant of the Treaty, held in Madrid, Resources Programme genetic resources community, Spain in June 2006, approved (SGRP) unites all of the and developments in funding, draft agreements between independent centres of recognition and coordination of the Governing Body and the the Consultative Group on the Programme itself. CGIAR centres and adopted International Agricultural the Standard Material Transfer Research (CGIAR) in Agreement (SMTA). The former a collaborative effort The International Treaty placed the in-trust collections to sustain biodiversity held by the centres under for current and future Past SGRP annual reports the jurisdiction of the Treaty, generations. The diversity have tracked progress in the superseding and formalizing of plant, animal, forest and negotiation of the International similar agreements made with aquatic genetic resources Treaty on Plant Genetic FAO in 1994. The latter provided supplies the building blocks Resources for Food and the legal framework within which for sustainable agriculture. Agriculture (the Treaty), which centres will provide PGRFA SGRP harnesses the was adopted by the Conference to users (see page 27). SGRP expertise and experience of the Food and Agriculture coordinated the contributions of the centres and their Organization of the United of CGIAR centres to the partners to put this diversity Nations (FAO) in November Treaty process, representing to work in fighting poverty, 2001 and entered into force on the centres’ interests and bringing health and food 29 June 2004, 90 days after channelling expert inputs from security, and protecting the its ratification by 40 countries. centres to optimum effect. environment. This landmark event opened SGRP provides the CGIAR a new era of international with a flexible means of cooperation in the conservation Focus on the in-trust working in the genetic and sustainable use of plant collections resources arena, serving genetic resources for food and as an umbrella and agriculture (PGRFA). The in-trust commitments communication mechanism Once adopted, the Treaty made by the centres in to optimize, bring provided the context in which their agreements with the cohesiveness, and add value specific instruments could Governing Body of the Treaty to the wide range of genetic be developed and applied to carry weighty responsibilities resources activities pursued operationalize its provisions. to conserve in-trust by the CGIAR centres. Collaborative efforts and collections under secure Through SGRP, centres negotiations to develop two conditions and to provide share information and such instruments of particular access to them. knowledge, conduct joint research, establish common policies and practices, stay abreast of developments in the global genetic resources sphere, and contribute to international debate. IRRI staff selecting and packing good-quality seeds for storage in the centre’s genebank. International Rice Research Institute 2 For some ten years, SGRP food security,² highlighted has led centres’ efforts to the collections’ contribution analyse their genebank to fighting hunger and to Introduction operations and associated the development of a global costs in order to determine system for conserving and whether and how these using crop diversity as commitments can be fulfilled. foreseen in the Treaty. These studies provided the The booklet, Safeguarding evidence to support a request the world’s agricultural to the World Bank for funds legacy,3 published by to upgrade both the centres’ the CGIAR Secretariat in genebank facilities and the September 2006, provides collections themselves. a more detailed description The ambitious upgrading of the collections and their programme reached a contribution to agricultural crucial stage in 2006 with development. It explains the the successful completion role of the in-trust collections of its first phase and the in tackling challenges as securing of funds for the diverse as devising an second phase (see page 16). affordable nutritional solution Throughout, the aim has to infantile blindness in Africa, been to bring the standards finding salt-tolerant crop of conservation of the in-trust varieties to grow on land collections and the quality of degraded by the 2004 Asian information on them to a level tsunami, and accelerating that fulfils the responsibilities the post-conflict recovery incumbent upon the centres of agriculture in Rwanda. under the Treaty. The second The CGIAR Secretariat has phase gives attention to made this booklet available at the sustainability of the international meetings during conservation and access the year, including the CGIAR arrangements and to 2006 Annual General Meeting enhancing collective action in Washington DC, USA, and among the centres, consistent events at FAO in Rome, Italy. with the CGIAR system’s At the 2006 CGIAR
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