In situ

March 16, 2011March 16, 2011

Satoyama in peril?

It may not be the thing that’s at the top of people’s agendas in Japan at the moment, but one does wonder what the long-term effect of the tsunami will be on the satoyama of the region, their agrobiodiversity and the people who maintain it. ((That’s if this agroecosystem occurs in the region. Is there a map of its distribution?)) The BBC series on the satoyama from a few years back is no longer available on the BBC’s website, but some of the documentaries can be found elsewhere. ((I got the photo from Flickr, thanks to the New York Public Library.))

March 15, 2011March 15, 2011

Nibbles: Mapping species, Paddies, Duplicates in genebanks, Chinese mystery millet, Cherimoya, ITPGRFA, AnGR lectures, Bulgur, Heirloom apples

Biogeographic Information System Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations. Not agrobiodiversity by any stretch but stunning all the same, and a clarion call to our community to sort out Genebank Database Hell, surely.
Traditional paddies as ecosystems. Great ones, too.
Title says “seed banks susceptible to sham samples,” text says not really, and maybe it doesn’t matter much anyway. Our take from a few days ago.
China’s millet useful in Africa. Which millet? Your guess is as good as mine.
Cherimoya going seedless.
Annex 1 list of International Treaty on PGRFA to expand? Well, maybe. Whatever, wow.
Lecture materials on conservation and use of animal genetic resources.
The ancient fast foods of Greece.
Conserving heirloom apples. Nice gig if you can get it.

March 12, 2011March 11, 2011

Thereby hangs a tale

And another.

Hours of innocent fun.

February 28, 2011February 28, 2011

Nibbles: Flora, Agronomy podcasts, Stats, GFAR, Horses, Lettuce, Churst forests, Brazil nut, Grassland diversity, Baobab, Flotation, Botanic gardens and invasives, Nutrigenomics

Picture guide to West African plants. Includes agrobiodiversity!
Iowa State Agronomy podcasts. Some cool stuff. Check out the one on “Modeling Seed Germination Over Time to Decide When to Regenerate Seed Lots in Long-term Storage.”
A “formal global program to develop subnational agricultural land-use statistics“? Riiiiight.
GFAR meeting on sustainable use of agrobiodiversity says “[w]e need to initiate solid and inclusive actions to build concerted and practical actions on sustainable use.” Well they do say actions speak louder than words.
Researcher “trying to remove the perception that hackneys are ‘half-crazed.'” I’d rather pay to save them if they were crazy, but that’s me.
Romaine: germplasm to breeding lines. But to cultivars? Private sector to pick up the slack.
Crops not mentioned among species that save our lives.
Saving sacred groves in Ethiopia. By building pit latrines. Well why not?
Brazil nut spread by people.
A trade-off between species and genetic diversity? Say it
ain’t so!
Today’s iconic species threatened by climate change is the baobab.
An Egyptian archaeobotanical blog.
Botanic gardens can threaten biodiversity.
Nature has (or had, it’s a couple months old) a supplement on nutrigenomics.

February 25, 2011February 25, 2011

Quality standards for in situ agrobiodiversity conservation published

This just in from Dr Jose Iriondo of the Depto. Biologia y Geologia, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain. Do provide your input if you can.

One of the deliverables of the AEGRO project (AGRI GENRES 057), ((That would be “An Integrated European In Situ Management Work Plan: Implementing Genetic Reserves and On Farm Concepts.” Coincidentally, we also heard yesterday about a series of NordGen conferences discussing in situ conservation under the title “Genetic Resources in Protected Areas.”)) funded by the European Commission, DG AGRI within the framework of Council Regulation 870/2004, is the formulation of quality standards for genetic reserve conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR). The quality standards are a guide containing a set of criteria for the establishment of genetic reserves within existing protected areas and a set of management standards to optimise the efficacy of genetic reserves as a tool for the conservation of CWR.

The current version of these quality standards is available. We are interested in knowing you opinion. Please send us your comments and suggestions. We would appreciate it if you would also disseminate this email to members of the Crop Wild Relatives community and Protected Areas community in your country for additional feedback.