Crop wild relatives - their conservation and importance

Crop wild relatives have characteristics that are very important for the crops we depend on. Tomatoes, for example, contain around 20 to 30 genes from their wild relatives. Without them, you wouldn’t have the kinds of tomatoes you have today, in terms of flavour, disease resistance and resistance to cold, frost and drought. These species are threatened by the same forces that threaten other species: loss of habitat, climate change, human activity. But unlike other species, crop wild relatives are crucial for the future of agriculture.

Bioversity has a long tradition of working to collect and conserve crop wild relatives. A recently-completed project, funded by UNEP/GEF, had a core objective of safeguarding crop wild relatives on the ground in protected areas designed specifically to safeguard these species. We welcome the announcement that Norway has pledged US$50 million to help the Global Crop Diversity Trust “to find, gather, catalogue and conserve” crop wild relatives. The Trust, founded by Bioversity and FAO, has genebanks as its focus. Its efforts will complement Bioversity’s work on in situ conservation and use, in protected areas and on farms.