Category: In situ

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Breed Saviour Award to be handed out

An interesting announcement from DAD-Net.

In the workshop on “National strategy for conservation of indigenous breeds of Livestock” organized by Planning Commission on 28th Sep. 2010 [in] New Delhi, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan suggested the idea of “Breed Saviour Award” for those communities or traditional livestock keepers who are conserving and improving the local livestock breeds. This idea has been accepted by National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) of India. SEVA NGO in association with LIFE Network and NBA will be distributing Breed Saviour Award 2010 on 8 Dec. at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Based on entries received from different parts of our country we selected 20 pastoralists/livestock keepers who are conserving local livestock breeds. Each awardee will receive Rs. 10,000/= (approx. 200 U.S. dollars ) and a certificate. Awardees are chosen based on criteria for selection of awardees. We have developed a simple format for documentation of individuals or communities conserving local livestock breeds. In the long run we look for formalising and evolving national regsiter for community conservation of livestock breeds with profiles of livestock keepers, indigenous knowledge, innovations and best practices. We look forward valuable suggestions on the format of documentation attached/comments on this process.

Sincerely,

P. Vivekanandan (vivekseva at gmail.com)
SEVA
45, T.P.M. Nagar
Virattipathu
Madurai — 625 010
Tamil Nadu, India

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The magic number is 5000

How many times have we heard the (para-) phrase: “It’s simply impractical to bring populations of critically endangered species up into the thousands”?

Well, my friends, if you’re not talking thousands, you’re wasting everyone’s time and money. You are essentially managing for extinction.

Ouch.

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Markets and on farm conservation: it’s complicated

Eating blue tortilla chips during a recent visit to the US reminded me that I had intended to blog about a paper just out in the Journal of Latin American Geography. ((Alder Keleman & Jonathan Hellin (2009) Specialty maize varieties in Mexico: A case study in market-driven agro-biodiversity conservation. Journal of Latin American Geography, 8 (2), 147-174. DOI: 10.1353/lag.0.0061)) Entitled “Specialty maize varieties in Mexico: A case study in market-driven agro-biodiversity conservation,” it looks in detail at the economics of growing blue and pozole maize in the areas around the huge market represented by Mexico City. Blue maize is used to make antojitos, savoury meat-, cheese- or vegetable-filled snacks. Pozole is a traditional Mexican maize and meat soup.

The authors, Alder Keleman and Jonathan Hellin, carried out a value chain analysis for both of these distinctive maizes and concluded that “while existing specialty markets clearly provide a strong incentive for farmers to continue to plant blue and pozole maize landraces, this in-and-of-itself … does not provide a complete in situ conservation system.” For one thing, it is not clear to what extent the demands of the market may be driving genetic “standardization” within these specialy types. And in any cases, other types of landraces are not benefiting from these markets, and may indeed be suffering as a result of them.

So, although on-farm conservation interventions which involve strengthening these specialty maize value chains, for example through geographical indications, may meet development goals like increasing incomes and food production, they will need to be carefully planned and implemented, and form part of a larger strategy. Which will need to involve genebanks.

Interestingly, another recent paper also looks at the role of markets in on-farm conservation in Mexico (among other things), though for another crop. ((K. Kraft, J. de Jesús Luna-Ruíz & P. Gepts (2010) Different seed selection and conservation practices for fresh market and dried chile farmers in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Economic Botany 64. 10.1007/s12231-010-9136-x. (Not yet live.) )) Kraft and co-workers found that all the landraces of green chile have disappeared in Aguascalientes due to the introduction of hybrids. Farmers still grow landraces for dried chile, in part because of laxer uniformity requirements for dried chile compared to fresh, but are open to the idea of hybrids for this market too. As with specialty maizes, the link between the market and diversity in complicated, and can go both ways. Genebanks are less fun, sure, but at least we know what they do to diversity. Mainly.

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Jebel Abdul Aziz protected area to get development help

Maybe it’s the spirit of Nagoya, but the Global Arab Network is announcing that

the State Ministry for Environment Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the United Nations Development Program and the local committees of the villages of Abdulaziz Mountain reserve signed on Tuesday three agreements for establishing development projects…

The aim?

…serving national communities in Abdulaziz Mountain area and reducing the effect of human activity on biodiversity in it, in addition to supporting the joint administration of the reserve’s resources among the various relevant establishments and organizing the management of the grants provided to local committees.

The Jabal Abdul Aziz protected area is in northeastern Syria, where the vegetation “represent[s] the nearest living examples to Neolithic sites along the Euphrates.”

The area clearly has eco-tourism potential. It’s also got crop wild relatives and other plant genetic resources:

The site includes a number of species that have an economical and ecological importance. Of these we mention:

(1) Genetic resources of fruit trees, Of these are: Pistacia atlantica, Pistacia khunjuk, and Amygdalus orientalis

(2) Excellent protein rich forage species. Of these we may mention Atriplex leucloda, Avena barbata, Dactylis glomerata, Salsola villosa, Stipa barbata, Aegilops spp., and Vicia spp.

(3) Medicinal plants are present in prosperous populations. Some of these species are: Thymus syriacus, Artemisia herba-alba, Capparis spinosa, Teucrium polinum, Achillea spp., Ziziphora spp.

(4) Ornamental species adapted to dry zone such as Gladiolus aleppicus, Ixiolirion tataricum and Tulipa montana are found too.

But will it be managed in such a way as to maintain these species?