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EUFGIS is financially supported by the European Commission under
Council Regulation (EC) 870/2004. |
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Background |
The EUFORGEN Networks are currently developing ‘common action
plans’ for target tree species to strengthen gene conservation
efforts from the pan-European perspective. The common action
plans aim at sharing of responsibilities for FGR conservation
among European countries. A necessary step in the development of
the common action plans is to obtain geo-referenced data on the
existing dynamic gene conservation units of forest trees
throughout their entire distribution ranges in Europe for
further analyses and strategy development. Dynamic gene
conservation emphasizes maintenance of evolutionary processes
within tree populations to safeguard their potential for
continuous adaptation. This means either managing tree
populations at their natural sites within the environment to
which they are adapted to (in situ), or artificial but
dynamically evolving populations elsewhere (ex situ). Climate
change makes it even more important to apply the concept of the
dynamic gene conservation to manage the genepools of forest
trees for the long-term sustainability of forestry in Europe.
The development of the common action plans has been hampered by
a lack of common minimum requirements and information standards
for the dynamic gene conservation units. In addition, there is
no clear understanding on what level of gene management can be
considered sufficient enough to declare an area for gene
conservation purposes at pan-European level. Scientific
definitions for in situ and ex situ conservation are clear but
operational definitions, that take into account factors such as
effective population size, isolation and opportunities for
reproduction, have been more difficult to develop.
Due to the lack of common minimum requirements and information
standards, a wide range of protected forests are presently
declared as gene conservation areas in addition to more specific
gene reserve forests. However, most protected areas are
established solely for species or habitat conservation and their
suitability for long-term gene conservation has rarely been
assessed prior to their establishment. Furthermore, gene
conservation often has a low priority in the management of the
protected areas and in most cases any active silvicultural
measures, which are typically needed for managing FGR, are not
allowed in the protected areas.
In May 2004, the EUFORGEN Steering Committee requested
Bioversity International to coordinate development of a project
proposal for the new Council Regulation on genetic resources in
agriculture (No 870/2004) to establish a Web-based information
system to support national inventories of dynamic gene
conservation units of forest trees in Europe. The proposed
system should provide accurate and reliable information for
further development of the common action plans and for
monitoring FGR conservation as part of sustainable forest
management.
In addition to facilitating the work of EUFORGEN, EUFGIS
contributes to the FGR work at the national and international
level. By developing the minimum requirements for dynamic gene
conservation units of forest trees, the project will improve FGR
conservation efforts in European countries. The common
information standards together with the online information
system will strengthen national FGR documentation efforts and
increase access to accurate and harmonized FGR information in
Europe.
EUFGIS also contributes to the implementation of the EU
biodiversity strategy, facilitates European inputs on FGR to the
work of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and
supports the ongoing process to develop biodiversity indicators
for Europe (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators,
SEBI2010). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) is currently planning to include an assessment on the
state of forest genetic resources as part of its global forest
resources assessment. This will create an additional need to
provide accurate information on FGR in Europe. The EUFGIS system
can also ease other global biodiversity reporting efforts if it
is linked to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.gbif.org).
Both FAO and GBIF have already expressed their interest to
establish links with EUFGIS, once it is created. |
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Revised on
May 27, 2008 .
Contact the
EUFORGEN Secretariat about
this page
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00057 Maccarese (Rome) Italy
Tel.: (39) 066118.1 - Fax: (39) 0661979661
Email: bioversity@cgiar.org -
www.bioversityinternational.org
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