Acta Horticulturae

esources, we now have the opportunity to do
something positive, concrete and lasting. This is
an historic opportunity. We pass it by at our
own peril. Certainly, future generations will not
look kindly upon us if we fail this test.
For more information on the Global Crop
Diversity Trust, visit its website at:
www.croptrust.org.
REFERENCES
In vitro culture: Ing. Aranzales daily checks the growing of the cassava plantlets. Photograph by
courtesy of CIAT.
GLOBAL CROP DIVERSITY
TRUST
The Global Crop Diversity Trust is a new international
institution established to ensure that
the opportunity provided by the Treaty is not
lost. The Trust’s mandate is to ensure the longterm
conservation and use of crop diversity for
food security worldwide. Co-sponsored by FAO
and the International Plant Genetic Resources
Institute (IPGRI) on behalf of the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR), the Trust is an independent fund organized
under international law, with headquarters
in Rome.
The Trust is currently undertaking crop conservation
strategies, crop-by-crop, initially for
those crops associated with the International
Treaty. These strategies, the first of their kind,
will identify important collections, assess
redundancies as well as gaps, and present a
concrete vision for how institutions holding
the collections might cooperate to ensure the
conservation of the crop’s genepool, in perpetuity.
The strategies will also identify funding
needs. The Trust expects 18-20 such strategies
to be complete by the end of 2006. The Trust
and the International Society for Horticultural
Science have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding whereby the ISHS will play a
leadership role in the drafting of strategies for
horticultural crops.
The Trust is currently assembling a non-depleting
fund, the income from which will provide
the financial support necessary to conserve the
world’s distinct plant genetic resources for
food and agriculture. Forever. Approximately
20% of the requisite funds have been raised
from a combination of countries, companies,
foundations and individuals. Concurrent with
assembling the remaining resources, the Trust
will begin making its first grants for long-term
conservation, based on individual crop strategies,
late in 2006. As its endowment fund
grows, so too will its ability to ensure the conservation
of more and more crops. The Trust
will support not just storage of genetic resources,
but a number of related activities such as
the development of information systems, characterization
and regeneration. In order to
receive support from the Trust, collection holders
will have to commit to providing access to
the materials.
THE FUTURE
The combination of the Treaty and the Trust,
working with existing genebanks, holds out the
promise of guaranteeing the conservation of
and access to what is undoubtedly one of the
most important resources on earth, the genetic
diversity that is the biological foundation of
agriculture. The loss of genetic diversity in agricultural
crops is a problem of immense importance.
It is also a problem that can be solved.
The biological resources exist. The technology
to conserve them is relatively simple and wellunderstood
- it is a freezer. Institutions and
people are in place and ready to do the job.
They simply need the proper international legal
framework, a good plan, and the requisite
funds - ingredients that are now within reach.
After years of political debate over genetic
FAO. 1998. The state of the world’s plant genetic
resources for food and agriculture. Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Rome.
Fowler, C., Smale, M. and Gaiji, S. 2001. Unequal
exchange? Recent transfers of agricultural
resources and their implications for developing
countries. Development Policy Rev. 19(2):181-
204.
Fowler, C. and Hodgkin, T. 2004. Plant genetic
resources for food and agriculture: Assessing
global availability. Annu. Rev. Environ. Res.
29:143-79.
Padulosi, S., Hodgkin, T., Williams, J.T. and Haq,
N. 2002. Underutilized crops: Trends, challenges
and opportunities in the 21st century.
p.323-328. In: Managing Plant Genetic
Diversity, CABI Publ. Wallingford, UK.
Palacios, X.F. 1998. Contribution to the estimation
of countries’ interdependence in the area
of plant genetic resources. Rep. 7, Rev. 1. UN
Food and Agriculture Organization
Commission on Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture, Rome.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cary Fowler
Dr. Cary Fowler is Executive Secretary of the
Global Crop Diversity Trust. Previously he was
Professor and Director of Research at the
Department of International Environment and
Development Studies, Norwegian University
of Life Sciences. He can be contacted at:
Global Crop Diversity Trust, FAO, Viale delle
Terme di Caracalla, 00100, Rome, Italy, email:
cary.fowler@fao.org
ISHS • 18