A Nordic regional approach for crop wild relative (CWR) conservation

Anna Palmé1, Heli Fitzgerald2, Jens Weibull3, Åsmund Asdal1, Birgitte Lund4, Dag Endresen5, Elina Kiviharju6, Hjörtur Þorbjörnsson7, Morten Rasmussen8, Ulrika Carlson-Nilsson1

NordGen Plants Box 41, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden Visiting address: Smedjevägen 3 Tel: +46 40 53 66 40 Fax: +46 40 53 66 50

NordGen The Nordic Genetic Resource Center is an organization dedicated to conservation and sustainable use of plants, farm animals and forest trees. Biological diversity is the foundation of human existence and adaptation to constantly changing environmental conditions. NordGen secures the biological livelihood of present and future generations.

Author affiliations: 1Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen) ,2Finnish Natural History Museum, University of Helsinki, 3Swedish Board of Agriculture, 4The Danish Agri Fish Agency, 5Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, 6Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), 7Reykjavík Botanic Garden, 8Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Project aims

The Nordic project “Ecosystem services: Genetic resources and crop wild relatives” was initiated with the long-term aim to assure conservation and sustainable use of the wild genetic resources associated with future food security. Short-term aims were:

• Establishing a Nordic network for CWR genetic resources • Enhancing Nordic cooperation on CWR conservation planning • Exchanging knowledge and broadening the scientific base on in

situ and ex situ conservation • Facilitating interactions between in situ and ex situ

conservation actors • Influencing CWR policy in the Nordic countries

Project outputs

The Nordic CWR project has resulted in: 1. two stakeholder workshops

• Stockholm 2015 (what, why and how of CWR conservation)

• Vilnius 2016 (planning and implementing conservation) 2. a common homepage dedicated to Nordic CWRs

(www.nordgen.org/cwr) 3. policy recommendations on CWR conservation and use 4. initial steps towards a common Nordic conservation approach

for CWRs: • a common CWR checklist (2 754 taxa) • a common CWR priority list (133 taxa) • identification of sites suitable for in situ conservation in

the Nordic region

This work was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers

Nordic CWR prioritization and in situ conservation planning

To plan conservation for Nordic CWR diversity, a first step was to prepare a checklist of the CWR taxa distributed in the region. According to our study, the Nordic region hosts over 2500 either indigenous or introduced CWR taxa. The checklist was prioritized by use and value criteria. The result was a priority list of 133 taxa representing crop groups of: vegetables, cereals, fruits, berries, nuts, spices, and grass and legume forages.

In situ conservation planning included creating an Ecogeograhic Land Characterization (ELC) map for the region. The ELC map was used with the priority species distribution data to find potential locations for complementary genetic reserves from existing conservation areas in the

5 countries.

Policy recommendations

The recommendations produced within this project are based on discussions at the stakeholder workshops in 2015 and 2016.

The main suggestions to the policymakers include • development of national strategies and policy instruments with

the aim to facilitate conservation and sustainable use of CWRs • implementation of in situ conservation in at least one site in each

of the Nordic countries and, in the long-term, build on this to create a network of complimentary sites across the Nordic region

• continue to develop Nordic cooperation and a common Nordic approach on how to integrate in situ and ex situ CWR conservation

• encourage research and infrastructure development within the field of CWR conservation.

It is also recommended that in situ conservation should be the main approach for CWR conservation in most species, while ex situ conservation should act as backup.

Figure 1. Species from the Nordic CWR priority list, which includes the Nordic CWR species that are most important for food security. From the top left: blackberries, sea beet (the wild relative to sugar beets), sea kale and wild carrot .

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Figure 2. The ecogeographic land characterization analysis identified 26 ecogeographic categories in the Nordic region using altogether nine bioclimatic, edaphic and geophysical variables.