© 2004 "New directions for a diverse planet". Proceedings of the 4th International Crop Science Congress, 26 Sep – 1 Oct 2004, Brisbane, Australia. Published on CDROM. Web site www.cropscience.org.au 1 Plant Genetic Resources Collections: A survey of issues concerning their value, accessibility and status as public goods J.A. Thompson, Michael Halewood, Jan Engels and Coosje Hoogendoorn International Plant Genetic Resources Institute j.thompson@cgiar.org 00057 Maccarese, Rome Italy Abstract Plant genetic resources are one of the most important tools in agricultural research and development for the improvement of the productivity and sustainability of production systems, both in the developed and the developing world. There used to be plenty of diversity among crop varieties and their wild relatives, but this is rapidly disappearing, due to a trend towards uniformity in production systems and the disappearance of uncultivated areas which contain wild relatives. Fortunately there are now about 1500 genebanks or genebank collections in the world, in which a significant amount of the diversity is being conserved for future use. At the same time there is a growing awareness of the diversity that is still being grown in farmers fields, in particular in developing countries, and that concerted efforts have to be undertaken to conserve these genetic resources. However, while this diversity used to be available as a global public good, developments regarding intellectual property, plant variety rights and international agreements have made access and benefit sharing much more complicated and, thus, these developments affect the status of these genetic resources as public goods. In this paper we describe a range of developments that affect the value and the accessibility of plant genetic resources. Media Summary Agricultural biodiversity is essential for sustainable agriculture, now and in the future. Present developments are threatening its conservation for future use and its availability. Concerted action is needed. Keywords Genebanks, public goods, biodiversity, genetic resources, access, benefit sharing, wild relatives, genetic erosion Introduction It has been predicted that crop output worldwide must rise two-fold in the next couple of decades just to keep up with human population growth (Imperial College Wye 2003). This increase must occur – and be sustained – in the face of changing climates, diminishing land, stagnating yields, degradation of other natural resources and global conflict. To meet the need for more and high quality food, farmers will require crop varieties capable of producing under diverse and changing conditions, without increasing amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. The basis for food security for present and future generations lies in the diversity of food crops. While only 15 major food crops provide more than 90% of the calorie intake of humans worldwide, human nutritional needs require a much wider diversity. This diversity is under threat as crop varieties adapted to specific environments, and with them the genes they carry, are subject to erosion and extinction. As the amount of land available for conversion to agriculture diminishes, any increase in production must come from increasing yields rather than expansion of agricultural land. These yield increases will depend on the production of new varieties derived from a diverse genepool of cultivars and wild relatives. The world’s crop genebanks hold much of the raw material needed to develop these varieties whilst providing increased yield, improved quality and greater nutritional value. The need to protect these ex situ collections of genetic diversity, as well as in situ and on-farm-maintained plant diversity, is an important challenge. Common heritage and global challenges The world has some 1500 genebanks and germplasm collections. The plant genetic resources held in them are an important part of humanity’s agricultural heritage, resulting from 10,000 years of intentional and unintentional breeding for human use. Today’s major food crops originated in areas that are only a fraction of the area where these crops are used today, including other continents. Thus farmers in any one