Link to ex situ conservation

The CWR status quo

It is estimated that using the broad generic definition of CWR there are between 50,000 and 60,000 CWR taxa globally (Maxted and Kell 2009). To enable conservation actions to be focused on those CWR taxa most likely to be used by breeders, Vincent et al (2013) prioritized 1,667 CWR taxa on the basis of (a) belonging to the primary or secondary gene pools of major crops, (b) being threatened with extinction or (c) having known useful adaptive traits.

In terms of CWR conservation actions, Castañeda-Álvarez et al (2016) reviewed ex situ gene bank holdings of 1,076 taxa related to 81 crops and found that 29.1% had no accessions in gene banks and 23.9% were represented by fewer than ten accessions per taxon, while >70% of the taxa were identified as high priority for further collecting. On the other hand, Maxted et al. (2016) reviewed CWR in situ conservation actions and found that although many CWR are passively conserved in existing Protected Areas, only a handful of genetic reserves had been established globally where CWR can be actively conserved in situ. Moreover, many of these do not meet the recommended minimum standards for in situ conservation set by Iriondo et al. (2012).

From another perspective, in Europe Kell et al. (2012) undertook IUCN Red List Assessments for 572 European CWR species and found that at least 11.5% of the species are threatened and one species (Allium jubatum J.F. Macbr.) is Regionally Extinct.