Aquatic genetic resources (AqGR) contribute significantly to global food security, nutrition and sustainable livelihoods. However, information on AqGR at the level of species and below tends to be scattered and incomplete. Although the aquaculture production statistics collected by FAO provide useful benchmark information about the utilization of AqGR in aquaculture at the species level, there is scant information available in terms of the prevalence and production of farmed types. Further, the process of compiling the State of the World’s Aquatic Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (SoW AqGR) revealed that over 1 000 non-wild type farmed types are produced around the world. At the same time, the Country Reports compiled by countries for the preparation of the SoW AqGR revealed that the terminology used for AqGR reporting is not standardized, creating risk for confusion.
The aim of this project is to enhance the ability of national and regional stakeholders to record and track information on AqGR below the level of species (i.e. farmed types) through the provision of information management tools and capacity building, with the direct goal of improving the regulation and monitoring of- and access to AqGR for food and agriculture.

Project duration: 15.12.2018 – 31.12.2023
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The project will address the gaps and the lack of coherence in the documentation methods for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), in particular for Crop Wild Relatives (CWR)
under  in situ conditions. Those gaps represent a barrier for the sharing of information in the scientific community and for the development of added-value services for plant breeders and organizations working on agricultural biodiversity. The project will consolidate work done on CWR descriptors by recent initiatives developed at national and international levels from different regions. It will take as the starting point the Core Descriptors for in situ conservation of CWR v.1 published by Bioversity International. The project foresees an on-line consultation with authoritative international experts of the Core Advisory Group (CAG) that will help to approve a revised strategic short list of CWR in situ conservation descriptors. It is predicted to validate the short list in countries representing FAO regions through a global survey. Survey results will be finally validated during face-to-face meetings with selected stakeholders and members of the CAG to achieve general consensus on them.
The project will promote the resulting international validated standard descriptor list for CWR in situ documentation. The project beneficiaries are researchers, plant breeders, and conservationists worldwide.
The list of descriptors developed in the first project phase is already available and can be downloaded here.

Project duration: 01.06.2019 -  30.06.2023
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The aim of the project is the development of a search engine for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), which allows to search for information on plant genetic resources in global databases. Global access to information and knowledge about PGRFA should strengthen the conservation, management and use of PGRFA. An IT-infrastructure will be established and standards for the identification and documentation of PGRFA will be developed. So-called Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) will help to uniquely identify samples of plant genetic resources. The information system allows the search for characteristics such as drought tolerance. This will make it easier for users worldwide to link research results from different institutions and exchange findings on the same genetic material.

Project duration: 01.01.2017 – 31.12.2019
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The European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) has developed and successfully implemented a tree species conservation planning approach based on Genetic Conservation Units (GCUs). Criteria for the size and management of these units for broad species groups were developed based on expert opinion and considerable empirical research. GCUs for specific species were then identified by European countries based on common criteria.
This project will enable APFORGEN (Asian-Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme) to implement key actions by building on the knowledge sharing and learning experiences of EUFORGEN.
The approach taken by EUFORGEN enables setting up a regional network of tree species conservation sites even in the absence of genetic information on the species. This is done by assessing environmental variability within a tree species range and ensuring that GCUs are optimally distributed across diverse environmental conditions.

Project duration: 01.12.2017- 30.11.2019
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