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International workshop on options and strategies for
conserving the world’s farm animal genetic resources
The scope of SGRP’s programme covers crop, forestry,
aquatic and livestock genetic resources, reflecting
the importance of understanding and integrating all
components of
agrobiodiversity.
Farm animals play a crucial part in the livelihood
systems of communities all over the world. They
provide food and clothing, and are important for
income generation, to store wealth, to provide
traction and for nutrient recycling. They make a
particularly important contribution to the
well-being of the most vulnerable groups –
small-holders in marginal environments, especially
women and children.
The sustainability of this contribution depends on
the availability and optimal use of farm animal
diversity into the future. Yet rapid changes in
agriculture globally may place farm animal genetic
resources at risk.
In response to this concern, SGRP convened a
workshop in November 2005, in association with the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO),
AGROPOLIS and
the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
The workshop, hosted by AGROPOLIS in Montpellier,
France, reviewed and analyzed options and strategies
for conserving farm animal genetic resources against
the background of recent advances in knowledge and
technology, and with a focus on the needs of
developing countries.
Find out more:
The threat of genetic erosion
The diversity of cattle, sheep, goat, pig, poultry
and breeds of other farm animal species represents
an irreplaceable source of traits for livestock
development to respond to changing environmental
conditions and human needs. However, these genetic
resources are being eroded as a result of changing
agricultural practices and economic, environmental
and other factors. Of particular concern are the
high rates of loss of indigenous breeds in
developing countries, which, coupled with inadequate
attention to the use and management of the genetic
resources, are seriously reducing the livelihood
options of the poor.
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An international response
The need to arrest the erosion of farm animal
genetic resources (FAnGR) and establish programmes
for their conservation and sustainable use is well
recognized. It is embodied in the objectives of the
Convention on Biological
Diversity and in FAO’s
Global Strategy for the
Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources.
Noting the need for a greater understanding of the
status of farm animal genetic resources and the
measures necessary for their conservation and
sustainable use worldwide, in 1999 the FAO
Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture initiated a country-driven process to
develop the first ‘Report on the State of the
World’s Animal Genetic Resources’. The Report will
be reviewed in draft form by FAO’s
Intergovernmental Technical
Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources
when it meets in Rome in December 2006, and
finalized at the
First International Technical
Conference on Animal Genetic Resources
in September 2007, hosted by the Government of
Switzerland.
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The workshop
The SGRP workshop brought together 63 scientists,
conservation programme managers and other FAnGR
experts from 28 countries, and from the CGIAR
Centres (ICARDA, ILRI, Bioversity International),
the French scientific community (including
CIRAD -
Centre de coopération internationale en recherche
agronomique pour le développement, and
INRA -
Institut national de la recherche agronomique,
France), FAO and GTZ. Participants aimed at
assisting the international community to develop a
global framework for FAnGR conservation and identify
priorities for action. To this end, the workshop
focused on the following questions:
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Why is the conservation of FAnGR needed?
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What is the nature and status of threats to
FAnGR?
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What types of conservation will be required?
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What are the key knowledge and information gaps?
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What
are the priorities for action?
Some of the most commonly agreed reasons for
conserving FAnGR include the prevention of the
erosion of the genetic diversity needed to provide
options for adapting to changing environmental
conditions and production systems, and to support
livestock improvement and sustainable production.
Other motives include the need to provide options to
meet the demands of new markets for livestock
products, and to preserve and pass on the cultural
and historical value of livestock and its diversity
to future generations.
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The
workshop findings
Decision-making framework
The workshop defined a framework to guide
decision-making on the optimal conservation strategy
for a given farm animal genetic resource. The
framework helps identify a strategy based on the
severity and speed of the threats to which the
genetic resource is exposed, the ways in which the
resource is valued, and the capacity to take action
to conserve it. A coherent strategy will include an
appropriate combination of in situ, ex
situ in vivo and in vitro
conservation methods. In determining the precise
combination of conservation methods to use, the
following factors should be considered:
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In situ
(community-based, management and conservation)
approaches should be the preferred method of
conservation where maintenance of the FAnGR is
the best available livelihood option for the
livestock keepers involved.
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Ex situ
in vivo conservation in institutional or
communally owned herds or flocks can be used
successfully to support conservation of FAnGR
that have current value.
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In vitro
conservation is needed to provide a secure
back-up for the developing world’s FAnGR in the
face of natural and human disasters that could
drive the FAnGR to extinction faster than in
situ or in vivo approaches can
respond.
Priorities for Action
The workshop identified priorities for action
addressing general considerations, conservation, and
research and information.
General priorities
Action 1: Develop policy that promotes use of
appropriate FAnGR and supports the conservation
of FAnGR.
Action 2: Show the benefits and costs of
conservation and raise awareness of the issues.
Action 3: Establish international funding
mechanisms, legal frameworks and advocacy to
support the actions of developing countries to
conserve FAnGR.
Action 4: Develop policy and guidelines for biosecurity, exchange, ownership, access and
benefit-sharing of FAnGR.
Conservation priorities
Action 5: Develop capacity for cryopreservation,
including the development of human and technical
resources.
Action 6: Determine the most appropriate system
for regional and international cryopreservation
programmes as a back-up for in situ and
ex situ in vivo methods.
Action 7: Identify hotspots of diversity and
identify the most threatened FAnGR within those
hotspots and take action to conserve them now.
Action 8: Establish early warning and response
systems for emergency threats to FAnGR.
Research and information priorities
Action 9: Capture all existing information on FAnGR in an internationally accessible
information system and couple this with tools
for analysis and interpretation of information
and for decision-making.
Action 10: Improve the level of knowledge about
how to prioritize, design and operate
conservation and use programmes that will be
sustainable in the medium to long term.
Action 11: Complete global surveys of the
molecular genetic diversity of the major
livestock species.
Action 12: Undertake critical analyses of the
economies of scale for various conservation
actions and interventions.
Action 13: Improve the technologies and reduce
costs of cryopreservation of gametes, embryos
and somatic cells of most species of FAnGR.
Knowledge gaps
The workshop recognized that the priorities for
action can only be pursued if knowledge gaps be
resolved. Good information is key to all decisions,
but the current levels of information limit the
quality of decision-making and the ability to advise
governments and other agencies on how to develop
policies to promote conservation and sustainable use
of FAnGR. Four specific knowledge gaps were
identified by the workshop:
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Lack of high quality information about the
status, characteristics, and current and future
values of most FAnGR, due to poorly developed
knowledge and information systems and low levels
of information gathering.
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A lack of inventory, analysis and design of
policy and regulatory frameworks and how they
affect conservation efforts.
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Lack of knowledge about how to prioritise,
design and operate conservation and utilisation
programmes that will be sustainable in the
medium to long term.
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Limited understanding of methods suitable for
valuing FAnGR and limited information on the
costs and the benefits of different conservation
methods are hampering the development of
conservation on the scale required.
See the
workshop report
(1.1MB)
See the
papers presented at the
workshop (890KB)
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Next steps
The findings of the workshop described above were
presented at a side event organized by FAO in
association with SGRP during the
Eighth Meeting of the
Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (COP8), in
Curitiba, Brazil, 20-31 March 2006. The outputs of
the workshop have also contributed to the
advancement of the
Global Strategy for the
Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources
including preparation of the first ‘Report on the
State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources’. SGRP
will participate in the fora at which the Report
will be discussed including the meeting of the
Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal
Genetic Resources in December 2006, and the First
International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic
Resources in September 2007. |
