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

Monitoring
It will be the rôle of monitoring to evaluate the results of management plans and propose changes
to enhance their efficiency. Monitoring the evolution of in situ habitats and species is as essential
as checking the viability of seeds in a genebank. It is the basic component of an alert system. More
generally, information of all the agencies acting in the field, and training of their staff, is of utmost
importance if we want to avoid unwanted or indirect destruction of protected populations. We
have to remember that destruction is irreversible, whereas conservation is a permanent struggle.
Low input techniques of monitoring will also prove valuable on a long term basis for fundamental
studies on the evolution of populations. Researchers usually have very few opportunities to
observe long term processes, due to the limited time frame of their research programs.
Developing research programs
I deliberately put this aspect of the strategy at the end, in order to make clear that researchers need
to change their usual way of thinking. When biologists are asked to answer a conservation
problem, they legitimately and regularly say that their knowledge is scarce, and that they need
several years of research to establish the scientific basis of their proposals. The problem is that in
most cases, the result of their research is that they discovered new fascinating problems, and that
they need another research program to ascertain their findings. A lot of problems arise from this
difference of approach : the job of researchers is to find new questions, whereas the job of
managers is to obtain better answers.
The necessary dialogue with a large array of land managers
Perhaps it is necessary here to enumerate the incredible diversity of people and agencies who play
a rôle in land management, and could participate in a global strategy. Most of the time, this
diversity is largely underestimated, and people believe that a small group of specialists would be
enough to reach a satisfactory conservation strategy. This belief fails to recognise that in the real
world, no funding source will be enough to meet the multifacetted challenges of conservation, and
that on a long term basis, no strategy will prove viable if we don't reach the support of public
opinion and mainstream society.
Protected areas
The network of protected areas will of course form the core of any in situ conservation system,
as it is their primary objective. According to countries, we find national parks, regional parks,
natural reserves. We must add national or regional trusts, such as the Conservatoire du Littoral
in France, the mandate of which is to buy coastal areas and ensure their ecological management.
NGO's may also be very effective in creating private trusts ; in this last case, motivations are very
diverse : the aim will be to protect a spectacular landscape, or the surroundings of an architectural
or historical complex, or a particular target species.
Legal persons having an interest in biodiversity
Forestry agencies and hunting and fishing agencies or syndicates may play a significant role. They
control or manage very large areas of natural habitats, and are interested in maintaining the global
functioning of ecosystems, as the life base of the species of their mandate. In particular, foresters