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

Ex sit u an d on f ar m con ser v at ion an d t h e f or m al sect or
4. There are more than 5.000 crop speciesTable
4:
globally but only a few hundred areThe
Index Seminum Gaterslebensis through the years
present in genebanks. Additionally the
number of species with a more or less
Year No. pages Year No. pages
sufficient variation maintained in
genebanks is rather limited. Another
Supplementum cultivarorum,
no pages
problem in this direction is the ever 1948 32 1971 161
increasing possibility for using material 1949 45 1973 170
from the secondary and even tertiary 1951 54 1975 182
genepools. Only a global concept of in 1953
1955
situ including on farm conservation
1957
complementary to genebank collections 1959
can meet the growing demands. 1961
56
60
70
84
87
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
189
193
41
62
73
174
166
5. Maintaining of material in genebanks 1963 103 1987 78
should exclude, in the ideal case, further 1965 120 1989 82
173
evolutionary changes (Hammer 1993a). 1967
1969
On the other hand, evolution of new
adaptations (e.g. disease resistances)
135
150
1991 87
should be allowed in crop plants. HereSource:
Hammer (1993b)
we find another reason for in situ and
specifically on farm conservation.
Table 5:
At least the last two of these five points canAccessions
provided by the Gatersleben genebank, 1991
be much better handled by inclusion of the
informal sector and should be, therefore,
discussed in more detail.
Receiving institutions Country No. accessions
Botanical gardens Germany
Other countries
742
2.414
The amount of plant genetic resources
Research institutions, Germany
4.043
collections etc.
When Mansfeld published his "Verzeichnis"
Other countries 3.990
(Mansfeld 1959), which contained aboutPlant
breeders Germany
494
1.430 species he estimated the total amount
Other countries
26
of cultivated plant species (excluding
Other departments of the
ornamentals and forest trees) with 1.700 to
Gatersleben institute
1.800. The new edition of the "Verzeichnis"
Germany 148
(Schultze-Motel 1986) contains about 4.800Subtotal
Germany
5.427
species and meanwhile further information
Other countries 6.430
was obtained particularly by field work inTotal
formerly neglected areas (Hammer 1993c).
11.857
It became clear that our global information Source: Hammer (1993b)
was quite comprehensive but area dependent
studies (e.g. Hanelt and Beridze 1991) were rare. The developing of the checklist-method for selected
for selected areas (Hammer 1991a) resulted in new input also on the species level as can be seen from
table 8. More than 1.000 cultivated species have been found in Cuba alone, i.e. more than one fifth of
the known global number from a comparatively small area.