Plant genetic resources are invaluable for present and future generations. Their importance is more pronounced now given the reality of climate change, since more extreme adaptation in agricultural crops is necessary. There is therefore a need for fresh genetic material that is resilient or has wider tolerance as changing conditions increase. Wild relatives of globally important crops such as barley, maize, oats, potatoes, rice and wheat are becoming more productive. Many examples highlight the importance of conserving crop wild relatives as sources of novel traits for resistance to disease and drought, and tolerance to extreme temperatures and salinity. Protected areas hold important plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, including endemic and threatened crop wild relatives and land races for food production. Many successful examples of plant agrobiodiversity conservation in protected areas already exist around the world, both in conventional protected areas that contain crop wild relatives and in specially designed on-farm areas tailored to the conservation of traditional land races.
Facts:
Armenia: The Erebuni State Reserve, 89 ha, is known for its diversity of wild wheat, including Triticum urartu, T. boeoticum, T. araraticum and Aegilops spp.
Australia: Several species of economic importance occur in the Border Ranges National Park, 31,683 ha, including macadamia nuts (Macadamia integrifolia and M. tetraphylla) and finger lime (Microcitrus australasica), which has been used as a source of genetic material to improve disease resistance in commercial citrus fruit.
Costa Rica: Corcovado National Park, a 47,563 ha park in the south of the country, is a genetic reserve for avocado (Persea americana), nance (Byrsonima crassifolia) and sonzapote (Licania platypus).
Germany: The 374,432 ha Flusslandschaft Elbe Biosphere Reserve (includes the Steckby-Lödderitzer Forest Nature Reserve) is one of the biggest floodplain forests in Central Europe. It contains wild fruit tree species such as pear (P. achras and P. pyraster) and apple (M. sylvestris). The Steckby-Lödderitzer Forest, part of the reserve, is particularly important for in situ conservation of wild fruit crop genetic resources. Other important crop wild relatives include perennial pasture ryegrass (Lolium perenne).
Iran: Touran protected area (1,102,080 ha) comprises a national park and a biosphere reserve containing wild relatives of barley (Hordeum sp.).
Kyrgyzstan: The walnut-fruit (Juglans regia) forests of the 63,200 ha Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve, contain a range of species including pear and wild plum (P. sogdiana).
Peru: Quechua communities in the Pisac Cusco area of Peru (an area characterised by rain-fed high altitude agriculture systems) have established a “Parque de la Papa” (Potato Park), a community-based, agrobiodiversity-focused conservation area. The 8,000 villagers from six surrounding communities have agreed to manage jointly their 8,661 ha of communal land for their collective benefit, thereby conserving their landscape, livelihoods and way of life, and revitalizing their customary laws and institutions.
Turkey: The Beydaglari Coast National Park (34,425 ha), situated in Western Anatolia on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey (also known as Olimpos-Beydaglari) contains the rare endemic relative of the faba bean (Vicia eristalioide). United States: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (133,925 hat) is located in Southwestern Arizona, sharing a southern boundary with Mexico and protecting small populations of wild 20 the value of chili peppers (Capsicum annuum).
Expressions of Interest: Food Security
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| Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve: Model site for integration of research-based conservation and development |
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Yayu forest is one of the priority forest areas in Ethiopia. Over 450 higher plants, 50 mammal, 200 bird, and 20 amphibian species have been recorded in the area. The forest is also one of the few remnant habitats for coffee (Coffea arabica). Ethiopia is the only center of origin and diversity for C. arabica and hence is important for in situ conservation of genetic diversity. The Yayu coffee forest is also important for the livelihoods of local households and stakeholders at different levels. This project aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation while contributing to the improvement of local livelihoods through adaptive conservation-development integration activities. To achieve this, the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve approach will be adopted. This project’s specific objectives are to strengthen the capacity of government agencies and community-based organizations responsible for biosphere reserve establishment and management, brand, promote and market coffee forest products, rehabilitate degraded parts of the forest area and establish protocols for the monitoring of forest conditions.
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| Herder Pasture Management in Protected Areas |
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The project area is situated in one of the largest remaining grassland areas on earth, the Mongolian Manchurian Steppe. The Mongolian Gazelle antelope herds represent the third-largest land animal migration in the world. The migration does not follow fixed routes, however, it can be disturbed by human activity such as domestic herding, mining and other industrial activity (more than half of the country is at least nominally designated for minerals exploitation). Effective contiguity among the three protected areas that comprise the project area will be essential for future North-South migrations. The grassland types effected in the project are underrepresented in protected areas both in Mongolia and worldwide. Their preservation and that of the animal species that reside there are recognized as priorities in the current draft national ecological gap analysis.
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| Management and Protection Enhancement of Private Natural Areas in Honduras |
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The conservation of private lands in Honduras began in 2001 and consequently the Honduran Network of Private Nature Reserves was established as a central initiative of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Project which was also supported by other projects and international cooperation programs, intended to bring together a significant number of landowners with interest to promote the conservation and management of natural resources in one association, with the ultimate aim of bringing these to the category of private reserves. As one of the activities under the work program of the CBD in PA, the government of the Honduran Republic promotes the strengthening of management and private conservation initiatives, considering that it can complement the conservation of fragile ecosystems underrepresented in the national system of protected areas in Honduras. Dry forest ecosystems are one of the most threatened and also a priority for private nature reserves.The remnants of dry forest are subject to constant threats from the surrounding productive landscape, due to limited capacities, knowledge and experience of local planners in land use and landscape.
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Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
22-Feb-2010 |
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| My Island My Community: A Public Awareness and Behaviour Change Program for Climate Change for the OECS |
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The Eastern Caribbean is at the front line of adapting to climate change. Small islands are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, protected areas, economies, tourism and the communities that live there.
While global attention has been brought to bear on this issue, there remains a critical communications challenge: how to effectively engage the public, ensuring they have access to sound and timely information and a clear vision of what they can do to help mitigate the challenges posed by climate change.
My Island – My Community is an ambitious new partnership program committed to building public awareness across the Eastern Caribbean to encourage wide spread behavior change with regard to small island community preparedness and adaptation to climate change. It brings together a unique network of organizations committed to using the power of communications to enhance knowledge sharing, engage the public and directly support CBA activities (Community Based Adaption) across the 9 countries of the Eastern Caribbean.
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| Forever Costa Rica |
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Costa Rica has 26 percent of its land area under various protection management categories. As in many other developing countries, however, challenges and threats are great. This is mainly due to the fact that development continues to pressure the ecological systems around terrestrial and marine protected areas. Overfishing, legal and illegal fishing, unregulated tourism development, urbanization, logging, and water pollution, sedimentation, the degradation of coral reefs and the depletion of fisheries, are threats that affect protected areas as well as other neighboring lands and waters. In addition, despite the enormous efforts made to date, Costa Rica’s protected area system still has conservation gaps that must be addressed if the desired ecological representation is to be achieved.
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Dominican Republic |
30-Dec-2009 |
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| Strengthening Marine Resource Management Across the Samaná bay Protected Area Complex in the Face of Climate Change |
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Samaná Bay, a priority site for protection and one of the largest and most productive estuaries in the country, is an important humpback whale breeding area and home to large numbers of endemic species and important habitats including mangroves and seagrass beds, which in addition to providing spawning and recruitment areas, have been shown globally to sequester carbon on the same order as terrestrial forests.
Dwindling vital marine resources and biodiversity in a highly complex seascape increasingly threatened by unsustainable uses are risking the region's main economy and the livilihoods of hundreds fishers and tourism dollars generated from whale watching.
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Lao People's Democratic Republic |
19-Oct-2009 |
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| Improved management of the Nam Kading National Protected Area of Bolikhamxay Province, Lao PDR |
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The Nam Kading National Protected Area is the third largest in Lao PDR at over 1,600 square kilometers, and can likely support viable populations of many medium sized mammals under threat, including at least four Critically Endangered and Endangered primate species. These include the Northern White-cheeked Gibbon, the Southern White-cheeked Gibbon, Red-shanked Douc Langur and one or possibly two Leaf-monkey species in the taxonomically unclear (but clearly highly threatened) Trachypithecus complex.
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| Development of an independent Conservation Trust Fund supporting Uganda's protected area system |
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A coalition of Government, NGOs, and civil society organizations have come together to discuss the need to develop a mechanism for long-term financing of Uganda’s protected areas. The group has recommended the creation of the Uganda Conservation Trust Fund (UCTF) that is independent of Government and which can generate the financial resources necessary to support the management of protected areas in Uganda.
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| Sustainable Management of Coastal Marine Resources of 6 Protected Areas of the Honduran Caribbean |
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The region's Caribbean coast is under intense anthropogenic pressure, as the populations of the five provinces that comprise the region, reach a total of just over 1. 7 million inhabitants, which represents 28% of the total population. Most of the population are Garifunas and Miskito (ethnic groups), which are located along the coastal area of the country. These ethnic communities are highly vulnerable, living in poverty and are seriously threatened by the degradation of natural resources. Project objectives include strengthening the governance of the region through institutional strengthening of NGOs and government institutions involved, improving the technical, financial regulation and management of coastal marine resources, accomplishing sustainable management and recovery of marine ecosystems through implementation of best fishing practices, tourism and infrastructure for economic development in the area, designing and implementing monitoring programs and research for decision makers by key stakeholders and implementing environmental education programs that promote good practices and sustainable development.
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| Strengthening the management of 7 Protected Areas in the Department of Olancho |
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The project will take place in the Department of Olancho, one of the most important regions related to forestry resources, which are very important for the national and local economy. The majority of the local communities involved in this project live in poverty, and lack the tools and mechanisms to effectively participate in the management of protected areas. The project objectives include consolidating the network of protected areas (7) of the Region of Olancho, managing PAs effectively and participatively and achieving an ecologically representative network, in order to accomplish environmental, social and economic functions.
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| Action Tsitongambarika |
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Intrinsic Biodiversity Problem - The disappearance of the lowland humid forest ecosystem of TGK would constitute a loss of the largest remaining area of this highly threatened and diverse vegetation type in Southern Madagascar, as well as a number of species endemic to the SE, and even to TGK itself, and many more that are poorly, if at all, represented in existing PAs.
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| A Community Partnership Park for Forests, Communities & the Zambezi River |
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The middle reach of the Zambezi River, from Chirundu, Zambia, to the river’s entry into Mozambique, is renowned for its wildlife diversity and abundance. This spectacular area, visited by thousands of tourists from around the world each year, hosts some of Africa’s best remaining populations of Nile crocodile, hippopotamus, African elephant, and African buffalo, and is also home to wild dog, lion, leopard, eland, sable and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest.
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| Management support to the Northern Reefs management area |
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The Northern Reefs area includes a large number of marine habitat types, including seagrass beds, algal flats, barrier reefs, fringing reefs, patch reefs, atolls, sunken atoll, lagoon areas, small sand spits/islands, and small volcanic rock islands.
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United Republic of Tanzania |
03-Sep-2009 |
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| Western Tanzania Livelihoods and Forest Conservation Project |
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In the forested regions of western Tanzania two project sites with protected areas at their core include communities that depend on and are essential for future sustainability and improved effectiveness of these protected areas. Yet these communities threaten the viability of the forest and freshwater upon which they depend.
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