Conserving plant genetic diversity in protected areas: population management of crop wild relatives

232 Pages·2008·14.88 MB·English

by  J.M. Iriondo

C P G D
ONSERVING LANT ENETIC IVERSITY
P A
IN ROTECTED REAS
Population Management of Crop Wild Relatives
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C P G
ONSERVING LANT ENETIC
D P A
IVERSITY IN ROTECTED REAS
Population Management of Crop
Wild Relatives
Edited by
José María Iriondo
Area de Biodiversidad y Conservación
ESCET
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Madrid, Spain
Nigel Maxted
School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, UK
Mohammad Ehsan Dulloo
Bioversity International
Rome, Italy
CABI is a trading name of CAB International
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©CAB International 2008. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying,
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conserving plant genetic diversity in protected areas: population management of crop wild
relatives / editors: José M. Iriondo, Nigel Maxted and M. Ehsan Dulloo.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84593-282-4 (alk. paper)
1. Germplasm resources, Plant. 2. Crops--Germplasm resources. 3. Genetic resources
conservation. 4. Plant diversity conservation. I. Iriondo, José M. II. Maxted, Nigel.
III. Dulloo, M. Ehsan (Mohammad Ehsan) IV. Title.
SB123.3.C666 2008
639.9'9--dc22 2007039904
ISBN: 978 1 84593 282 4
Typeset by SPi, Pondicherry, India
Printed and bound in the UK by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn
Contents
Preface vii
Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction: The Integration of PGR Conservation 1
with Protected Area Management
N. Maxted, J.M. Iriondo, M.E. Dulloo and A. Lane
2 Genetic Reserve Location and Design 23
M.E. Dulloo, J. Labokas, J.M. Iriondo, N. Maxted, A. Lane,
E. Laguna, A. Jarvis and S.P. Kell
3 Genetic Reserve Management 65
N. Maxted, J.M. Iriondo, L. De Hond, E. Dulloo, F. Lefèvre,
A. Asdal, S.P. Kell and L. Guarino
4 Plant Population Monitoring Methodologies for the 88
In Situ Genetic Conservation of CWR
J.M. Iriondo, B. Ford-Lloyd, L. De Hond, S.P. Kell, F. Lefèvre,
H. Korpelainen and A. Lane
5 Population and Habitat Recovery Techniques for the 124
In Situ Conservation of Plant Genetic Diversity
S.P. Kell, E. Laguna, J.M. Iriondo and M.E. Dulloo
v
vi Contents
6 Complementing In Situ Conservation with 169
Ex Situ Measures
J.M.M. Engels, L. Maggioni, N. Maxted and M.E. Dulloo
7 Final Considerations for the In Situ Conservation of 182
Plant Genetic Diversity
J.M. Iriondo, M.E. Dulloo, N. Maxted, E. Laguna, J.M.M. Engels
and L. Maggioni
Index 203
Colour Plates can be found following pages 18, 96 and 160
Preface
This book is about the conservation of genetic diversity of wild plants in situ in
their natural surroundings, primarily in existing protected areas but also outside
conventional protected areas. A lot of effort has been dedicated to conserving plant
biodiversity, but most of this has focused on rare plant communities or individual
species threatened with extinction. Similarly, while much has been done to collect
and conserve crop genetic diversity ex situ in gene banks, very little consideration
has been given to conserving intraspecific genetic diversity in situ and in particular
while designing protected areas.
Why should we care about the genetic aspect of biodiversity conservation?
Genetic diversity is in fact essential for any species to underwrite its ability to
adapt and survive in the face of environmental change. After all, the history of
life is a history of change, a constant adaptation of life forms to a dynamic world.
However, the rate at which our planet’s environment is now changing is dramati-
cally increasing due to the activities of humans around the world. Therefore, the
relevance of the genetic diversity of plants and other life forms to adapt to these
changing conditions is now higher than ever. Furthermore, as humans we also face
the uncertainty of our actions in the future. In an environmentally dynamic world
with a constantly increasing population and limited resources, we need to conserve
genetic diversity for our own food and environmental security.
Throughout the last 10,000 years, farmers have cultivated plants of approxi-
mately 10,000 species to provide food, medicines and shelter, and through careful
breeding have generated an extraordinary diversity of crops adapted to the local
characteristics of each site. In the last century, our intimate knowledge of the
genetic basis of inheritance sparked a revolution in agriculture that resulted in a
quantum leap in production but these high-yielding varieties tended to be geneti-
cally uniform. As farmers have progressively abandoned their traditional varieties
and landraces and shifted to the cultivation of more productive modern cultivars,
the number of food crops and their genetic diversity has dangerously narrowed.
Today, over 50% of food production from plant origin is derived from only three
vii
viii Preface
crop species and 90% comes from the first 25 crops. This situation, coupled with
high levels of genetic erosion in these crops through the abandonment of tradi-
tional genetically diverse landrace varieties, has placed food production in a very
vulnerable situation with regard to future changes in physical environmental con-
ditions and the arrival of new races of pests and pathogens. Many countries and
the international community have been aware of this problem and during the past
few decades have consequently established germplasm banks to store the genetic
diversity contained in the vanishing traditional varieties and landraces.
More recently, attention has been brought to conserving the genetic diver-
sity present within wild plants, particularly those closely related to crop species,
known as crop wild relatives (CWR). The much needed genes that could provide
the required adaptation to changing environmental conditions and tolerance or
resistance to new strains of pests and pathogens are probably already present in
CWR and can be easily transferred when needed. Conservation in germplasm
banks is an effective way of preserving large amounts of crop germplasm that
may be used for future plant breeding. Nevertheless, a major drawback of this
methodology is that the genetic evolution of this germplasm is ‘frozen’ because the
germplasm is maintained in a latent life form (i.e. seeds). Also, the costs of loca-
tion and sampling the genetic diversity of all wild plants would be too prohibitive.
Furthermore, in situ conservation necessarily involves the protection of habitat and
ecosystems, so engendering broader ecological integrity and resultant human well-
being – after all, making genes available to breeders is an important, but only one,
use of biodiversity.
Today there is a consensus among the conservation community that the best
way of conserving a species and its genetic diversity is in situ, i.e. through the con-
servation of their populations in their natural habitats. In this way, generation after
generation, natural populations can evolve and adapt to physical environmental
trends and to changes in the web of interactions with other life forms. Nevertheless,
conservation always comes at a cost and the land that is set aside for in situ conserva-
tion may not be compatible with some human activities. Therefore, any conservation
strategy must always keep in mind the socio-economic environment and the scale of
values, and the interests that human society has at each location.
Wild plant species are fundamental constituents of all kinds of habitats and eco-
systems. Although many occur in natural ecosystems and pristine habitats (whether
protected or not), others, particularly the close CWR of our major crops, are pres-
ent in perturbed habitats and human-transformed habitats such as those linked to
agriculture or transport infrastructures. In this book we focus on the establishment
and management of genetic reserves for conserving plant genetic diversity in pro-
tected areas. There are several advantages for this. The first one is the economic
savings in infrastructure and maintenance when the genetic reserve is located in
an existing protected area, as well as the lack of problems related to setting aside
a territory that may be of interest for human development activities. There is in
fact a mutual benefit in the establishment of a genetic reserve in a protected area.
Genetic reserves for CWR are likely to be welcomed by protected area managers
since their establishment will undoubtedly increase the perceived natural assets and
values of the site. The second advantage relates to the long-term sustainability of
the genetic reserve. If the genetic reserve is not in a protected area, there is no
Preface ix
guarantee that the land will be kept as a reserve in the long term due to shifting
political and socio-economic decisions.
Although the focus of this book is the in situ conservation of the genetic diver-
sity of species related to crops, there is essentially no fundamental conservation dis-
tinction between those wild species closely related to crops and those that are not.
Perhaps the only difference is the potential use of the diversity once it is conserved.
The principles outlined in what follows are equally applicable for the in situ genetic
conservation of any wild plant species, whether the aim is to maintain a species
threatened by habitat fragmentation, over-collection from the wild or a species that
has potential use as a gene donor to our crops.
This book is arranged in a logical, sequential structure to help guide the
conservationists in the establishment of a reserve for the conservation and man-
agement of genetic diversity of wild plant species. After an introductory chapter
where the main concepts are presented, the selection of the genetic reserve location
and its design are discussed in Chapter 2. Next, Chapter 3 presents the manage-
ment plan that must be inherent to any in situ conservation strategy in a genetic
reserve and Chapter 4 describes the monitoring activities that are required for
the long-term maintenance of wild populations. However, the target populations
in genetic reserves may not always be in an optimum state and, consequently, a
set of restorative actions on the target population and/or the surrounding habitat
may be needed. Thus, Chapter 5 shows the main population and habitat recov-
ery techniques that are currently available. We have already stated that one of
the final goals of CWR conservation in reserves is to provide a wealth of genetic
diversity that may be used by plant breeders to respond to future challenges in
food production. In order to make this possible and to maximize the benefits of this
initiative, Chapter 6 explores the safety and utilization linkages of genetic reserves
with germplasm banks and other plant genetic resource repositories to facilitate a
flux of germplasm and related information that may be used by plant breeders.
Finally, Chapter 7 provides an economic assessment of genetic reserves along with
some policy considerations and presents some of the challenges and trends that we
perceive for the future.
Obviously, the in situ conservation of wild plant genetic diversity should not
be restrained to protected areas alone, especially as some species are often associ-
ated with human-moderated ecosystems. Many of the indications provided in this
book can readily be applied in initiatives dealing with the conservation of wild
plant genetic diversity in environments outside formal protected area networks.
Nevertheless, this is one of the issues that should be studied in more detail in future
activities in CWR conservation.
José María Iriondo
Nigel Maxted
Mohammad Ehsan Dulloo
June 2007
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