CWR in EURISCO

A meeting of the project partners was held on 18-19 June in Sadovo, Bulgaria, organized in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (IPGR). The ECPGR Secretary, L. Maggioni, and the EURISCO coordinator, S. Weise, summarized the project objectives and 2023 achievements, with the agreed principles for transferring data from national inventories to EURISCO. The new extension of EURISCO, agreed descriptors, data upload mechanism, and the new web interface were described. Further improvements in search and download functionalities are planned.

Project partners from Albania (online), Bulgaria, Germany (online), Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands (online), Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom (online) presented their progress and shared their experiences (see  presentations). Overall, by August 2024, seven countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) have provided CWR data to EURISCO, for a total of 3,035 populations data.

Considering that the German Ministry for Food and Agriculture granted an extension of the project until December 2024, with an additional budget of ca. € 70,000, new partners from Georgia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia were invited to join the project. They presented their countries’ activities for CWR conservation and documentation and their plans to provide CWR in situ data to EURISCO within the next six months (see presentations). Agreements were made between the ECPGR Secretary and all the partners for work plans to be implemented with the project’s support. A specific discussion focused on the usefulness of adding one state to the descriptor CONSACTION (Conservation action in place), to enable adding information about populations managed as part of a genetic reserve. Principles and procedures to assign DOIs to the CWR in situ populations were also discussed. Guidelines to inform data providers on suggested options and procedures will be drafted and publicized.

Agenda (246,7 KB) | List of participants (556,6 KB)

• Introduction - L. Maggioni (588,7 KB)
• Taking stock of the new EURISCO extension for in situ CWR data. How to use it, how to improve it  - S. Weise (2,2 MB)
• Discussion on the procedure for assignment of DOIs to wild populations - J. Iriondo & S. Weise (732,5 KB) 
• Proposal for adding a new value to the descriptor CONSACTION - J. Iriondo (181,5 KB)

The meeting was dedicated to updating on the progress made and to exchanging views and experiences regarding the selection of in situ populations to be uploaded on EURISCO. The main conclusions were that the selection of populations very much depends on each country's context and approach. The overall principle remains valid that populations need to be available to users “in principle”. This means that it is not advisable to include those populations that are so strictly protected by local legislation as being certainly unavailable for use. It was also observed that the inclusion of actively conserved populations is a possible option (either being specifically conserved and managed in genetic reserves, or informally conserved as being part of other types of protected areas). It is however also reasonable to include a selection of non-protected, non-managed, widely distributed crop wild relative populations, which may not require active conservation but may be of interest to potential users. Other topics were discussed, such as the need to back up in situ populations as ex situ samples. This practice is especially advisable for threatened populations, as well as for facilitating the transfer of material to users. It was also acknowledged that the cost of collecting and maintaining CWR populations ex situ would not be affordable for all the populations that may be of interest to users and ad hoc seed procurement could be a valid option in many cases. Strategies to involve a network of data providers and obtain collaboration and integration of efforts of different ministries and local authorities were touched on. A more detailed discussion of these and other aspects of the project was postponed in view of a potential physical meeting that the Secretariat will try to organize next year in March/April, depending on budget availability. The Bulgarian partner kindly offered to host the meeting.
The presentations and video recording of the meeting are available below.

• Overview of the project - L. Maggioni, ECPGR Secretary (673,8 KB)
• In situ CWR populations in EURISCO – update – S. Weise (1,1 MB)
• Bulgaria – K. Uzundzhalieva (206,4 KB)
• Germany – S. Sensen (1,1 MB)
• Lithuania – J. Labokas, D. Uogintas (4,6 MB)
• United Kingdom - N. Maxted (1,4 MB)