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

In situ conservation and the formal sector
M. CHAUVET 1
What is in situ conservation ?
Much has been said about in situ conservation. It has become a common topic of nature conservation,
and is considered as the central aim of a conservation strategy. But in order to implement
such a concept for cultivated plants, we need know clearly what it means, and above all,
what it implies.
Usually, we conservationists consider wild species of plants or animals. Conserving them in situ
means that we will maintain their natural habitats and apply some management practices on their
populations. In other words, in situ conservation is a kind of ecosystem management oriented
towards the survival or the reinforcement of some target species.
When we deal with cultivated plants or weeds, the problems arise from the fact that the habitat
is a field or a pasture, or any kind of habitat deeply transformed by the farmer's activity. It is no
longer a natural ecosystem, supposed to evolve without human pressures. Its conservation implies
the maintenance of cultivation, with the same agricultural practices, the same farmer's know-how
and a continuous use of the crop. The basic prerequisite is that farmers are willing to do so, and
that they find their own interest. Apart from human groups isolated from our mainstream society,
the consequence will probably be that some technical improvements have to be considered for the
crop to remain competitive, unless some authority is able to compensate for the difference.
This kind of conservation has been called on farm conservation. With regard to clarity, I propose
to restrict the use of in situ conservation to wild species, and to use a new latin wording : in agro
conservation, for domesticated plants (including weeds) and animals.
This method makes sense if the crop is a population. In such a case, natural and artificial selection
pressures are allowed to act at each generation. We can include sophisticated systems of clonally
propagated crops, such as cassava, where farmers go to the "forest" and select new clones from
semi-wild populations. But in the case of plants for which no sexual propagation is allowed in the
multiplication of cultivars, such as most fruit trees, the distinction between in agro and ex situ is
meaningless.
Another kind of emerging technique is called dynamic conservation. In classical static conservation,
regeneration is intended only to secure a quantity of viable seeds, trying to avoid
selection pressures. On the contrary, in dynamic conservation, we create artificial populations and
we grow them at a large scale, allowing natural and human selection pressures to act. This can be
done in a farmer's field, but also in whatever experimental field.
1
Author's address:
Bureau des Ressources Genetiques
Museum
57 rue Cuvier
75231 Paris 05
France