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

Ex-situ and in-situ conservation of plant genetic resources in Germany
Ex-situ and in-situ conservation of plant genetic resources in Germany
F. BEGEMANN 1
1. Historical Development of Plant Genetic Resources Activities in Germany
Plant genetic resources activities in Germany have developed since the end of the 19th century when the
importance of traditional landraces for agricultural production in general, and plant breeding in
particular, has been acknowledged [LEHMANN, 1990]. The concern about losses of old landraces, today
termed genetic erosion, led to a movement devoted to the conservation of valuable germplasm in
agriculture and forestry. But right from the beginning, conservation was meant to safeguard genetic
material as a genepool for further sustainable use in production and breeding.
With increasing importance of plant genetic resources, a number of individuals paved the way to
safeguard landraces and wild relatives of cultivated plants. Conservation activities developed in a
twofold way. Some individuals tried to maintain traditional seed or vegetative plant material on their
own farms to be independant and have a good choice of seed adapted to their specific environment.
Other individuals were in a position to create official institutions with the support of public funding.
Today, we regard the latter as formal sector while the former constitutes the informal sector. It is only
logic that many individuals, especially of the informal sector, have been working unknown to the public.
But to introduce two lead figures who became well-known in the field of agricultural plant genetic
resources, Erwin Baur and Hans Stubbe should be mentioned here.
Erwin Baur (1875-1933) became the first director of the new Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute of Research on
Plant Breeding which was founded in 1927. Although this institute collected germplasm samples in
Turkey and some Latin American countries its main concern had not been the conservation of plant
genetic resources but topics such as crop plant evolution and genetics.
As a consequence, in 1943, a new Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute of Crop Plant Research was founded near
Vienna by Hans Stubbe (1902-1989), a student of Erwin Baur. He became the first director and moved
the institute from Vienna to Gatersleben due to World War II where it became the most important plant
genetic resources centre of the former German Democratic Republic. By that time, it was the GDRcounterpart
of the largest plant genetic resources centre of the Federal Republic of Germany which was
founded in 1970 at the Institute of Agronomy and Plant Breeding of the FAL in Braunschweig. Today,
the genebank in Gatersleben is the largest plant genetic resources centre of the united Germany
[BEGEMANN AND HAMMER, 1993].
2. Ex-situ Conservation and Management of Plant Genetic Resources
Traditionally, plant genetic resources activities were split according to (1) agricultural and horticultural
crops, (2) forestry species and (3) wild species. This holds true for the formal and informal sector as far
as it is known.
2.1 Formal Sector
1
Author's address:
Information Centre for Genetic Resources (IGR)
Centre for Agricultural Documentation and Information (ZADI)
Villichgasse 17
D-53177 Bonn
Germany