Encouraging Diversity

This book presents around 80 briefly described cases which illuminate accumulated experience in plant genetic resources in both the South and the North. These experiences illustrate the apparent conflict between crop conservation and development, and contribute to the understanding of opportunities that are offered by new approaches and activities in this field. Similarities between problems in the South and the North are apparent. The authors analyse the experiences and perspectives of genebanks, plant breeders, seed programmes and NGOs involved in crop development and conservation. They place them in the context of new approaches in local and global Plant Genetic Resource (PGR) management by both the formal and informal sector. The last part of the book describes the next step in the debate around PGR management. It discusses the implications of integrated and adaptive management approaches in PGR management and forecasts the concepts to be used and institutional organization required to bring about changes which can resist the pressure which farmers and processionals in PGR management face as a consequence of a range of external forces. It presents a very diverse and rich array of experiences of conservationists, breeders, seed producers and NGOs in relation to crop conservation and development.

Since September 2001 she is the research and training co-ordinator of the PAU PhD programme. She continues to collaborate with the regional PPB programme in Meso America, and participates in various other projects, like the FAO-coordinated project Using markets to promote the sustainable utilization of crop genetic resources. She is a staff member at Wageningen University.