Agrobiodiversität in Deutschland - Genres

26 | Johannes Engels
From the earliest conservation and use activities
of genetic resources until today
facilitated by his scientific mind, certainly with respect to understanding
diversity and to contribute to its classification, can be measured against the
fact that Charles Darwin had high appreciation for the work of von Humboldt.
It had helped Darwin tremendously with his own studies (Wikipedia/
von Humboldt 2011). Based on these and many other facts and figures one
can conclude that von Humboldt has significantly contributed to our understanding
of biological diversity, of the classification of plants and animals,
their distribution and that this would not have been possible without
moving these resources from where they were collected in Latin America
to Europe. Even against ‘modern legislation’ with respect to the availability
of genetic resources and their subsequent use for research von Humboldt
does not ‘qualify’ as a biopirate, in fact he was and is a highly respected and
esteemed bio-scientist!
Another important and famous European collector has been Nicolay
Vavilov (1887-1943). He collected worldwide as much genetic diversity of
many crops, especially those that would have a potential to grow under
temperate conditions, in search for diversity that would allow expansion
of agriculture into Siberia through actual breeding. Most of the collected
material (more than 200.000 seed and root samples (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov, visited on 27.12.2011) was brought back to St. Petersburg
(then the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Leningrad),
grown out in fields, evaluated and then stored under ambient conditions, at
the now called ‘N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry’ at St. Petersburg
or at its 11 research stations spread across Russia (http://vir.nw.ru/
structure.htm, consulted on 27.12.2011). Vavilov systematically analysed the
species and genetic diversity while collecting and afterwards in the experimental
fields at home. That allowed him to develop his theory on the centres
of origin, i.e. geographical areas where a group of plants, either domesticated
or wild, first developed its distinctive properties (see also Figure 2). A centre
of origin frequently coincides with a centre of diversity, i.e. a geographical
area where a given species or genus had developed a significant high level of
genetic variation. By bringing the genetic diversity of cultivated crops (and
some of their wild relatives) to one institution Vavilov established one of the
first genebanks. As was already mentioned for von Humboldt, these significant
research efforts with a critical important impact on the understanding
and conservation of plant genetic resources would have most likely not hap-
pened if legal restrictions of accessing genetic resources would have been
in place during that period. Therefore, it can also be concluded that Vavilov
was not a biopirate. Ironically, during the partly occupation of the Soviet
Union a special commando of Hitler’s regime took germplasm collections
but failed to access the seed collection in St. Petersburg (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov). This latter act could be classified as biopiracy.
Fig. 2: The centres of diversity of cultivated plants. (1) Mexico-Guatemala, (2) Peru-Ecuador-Bolivia, (2A)
Southern Chile, (2B) Southern Brazil, (3) Mediterranean, (4) Middle East, (5) Ethiopia, (6) Central Asia,
(7) Indo-Burma, (7A) Siam-Malaya-Java, (8) China (adapted from Ladizinski 1998).
Abb. 2: Die Diversitätszentren der Kulturpflanzen. (1) Mexiko-Guatemala, (2) Peru-Ecuador-Bolivien, (2A) Süd-
Chile, (2B) Süd-Brasilien, (3) Mittelmeerraum, (4) Mittlerer Osten, (5) Äthiopien, (6) Zentralasien, (7) Indo-
Burma, (7A) Siam-Malaysia-Java, (8) China (nach Ladizinski 1998).
Breeding and genetic resources
The discovery of Mendel’s inheritance laws around 1865 greatly facilitated
the step from farmers’ and hobby breeding to professional plant breeding.
Specially in central Europe a number of breeding ‘companies’ started with
well-defined programmes to breed major crops. This resulted in an increasing
need for more and specific genetic diversity, as illustrated above with
the efforts that Vavilov undertook a few decennia later. Such efforts of accumulating
more genetic diversity through exchange and targeted collect-
Johannes Engels | 27