Integration of Conservation Strategies of Plant Genetic ... - Genres

or several lead institutes take on the responsibility to develop and maintain the European database
for a species or group of species as a contribution in kind to the programme.
An important role for the European databases and working group members will be to ensure that
concrete steps are taken to increase the use of germplasm in collections. A key function of the
databases is to analyse the data they contain so that working groups can take the necessary action
to ensure that all unique accessions are duplicated, that primary responsibility for regeneration and
long-term conservation is assigned to individual genebanks, and that measures are taken to reduce
redundant duplication.
Although the working groups recognise that they may lack specific expertise in in situ
conservation, nevertheless the members' broad knowledge of crop genepools represents an
invaluable resource that can be drawn on in the formulation of integrated conservation strategies
for particular species and groups of species.
Role of Country Coordinators
The Country Coordinators will continue to represent the ECP/GR to sponsoring Ministries and
also act as a liaison point between IBPGR, Ministries and participating institutes. An important
task is to maintain close contact with working group Chairmen or members to monitor progress
and identify potential problems with databases and collections.
It is the responsibility of the Country Coordinators to obtain the necessary government
commitment to the programme in general and more particularly to ensure that the required
support is provided to institutes to allow them to make the contributions in kind (maintenance of
databases, maintenance of collections, collecting, etc.) which are the basis of the success of the
programme.
Role of IBPGR
As mentioned previously, it has been found that an input of one quarter of the time of the network
coordinator was insufficient. A full time coordinator would allow the secretariat to better respond
to the requests of working groups and would allow increased activity in terms of:
• support to the working groups and closer interaction with them between meetings
to ensure that the planned activities are kept to schedule
• technical support to national programmes
• information gathering and distribution
• ensuring full complementarity with other initiatives, especially that of the EC.
• assisting in formulation of proposals for joint activities and in identifying partners
• searching for donors to support particular elements of workplans, especially for
eastern European countries
• linking with other regions
• contributing to raising public awareness of the importance of PGR conservation.