Promoting an Enabling Environnement for Agrobiodiversity in Europe.

Summary

Since the 1970s Europe has approached plant genetic resources for food and agri-culture (PGRFA) as a specific domain defining its boundaries with the word “conservation”. At the beginning the focus was on ex situ conservation, i.e. genebanks conserving seeds in their storage systems. And then little by little the focus moved also to in situ/on farm conservation, i.e. conserving PGRFA where they have evolved and therefore also in farmers’ fields. But the pivotal word was always “conservation”, with procedures, rules, wording and policies mainly defined by the scientific community. Thus, the conservation of PGRFA was separated from agriculture as such, resulting in two distinct policy fields with few, if any, interrelations. This may be a reason why it took 10 years of negotiations of the directive on conservation varieties to have finally a legal text considering that seed laws should be amended in order to include more diversity.
This booklet presents the recommendations for promoting an enabling environment for Community Agrobiodiversity Management in Europe, considering again diversity at all the levels (e.g. varieties, species, ecosystems, landscapes and men) as a key component of farming systems. This diversity - called agrobiodiversity and including also social and cultural diversities - plays a central role for achieving the sustainable use of PGRFA and for adapting our food systems facing climate change and new societal expectations.