Where to establish a genetic reserve?

The location of the genetic reserve(s) can be decided either through:

  • Botom-up initiatives, involving local stakeholders. In this case, managers of a particular site (e.g. protected area managers, farmers or private landowners) will decide to conserve priority CWR(s) population(s) that occur within the boundaries of the sites they manage.
  • Top-down approaches, using conservation planning tools (e.g. diversity and complementarity analyses) to identify a network of the most important sites for conserving priority CWR. These sites can later be explored for the establishment of genetic reserves.

 

What goes next?

Once you have decided to establish a genetic reserve in a given location, the next step will be to assess the geographic limits of the genetic reserve itself and the main characteristics of the target CWR populations, making sure that the target species are properly identified and documented.

Key steps

Download here some sample data sheets to start your own census.