Embed or link this publication
Popular Pages
p. 2
table of contents introduction highlights theglobalsystem long-termfunding governance fundraising communications financeandinvestments annex1financialstatements annex2membersoftheexecutiveboard annex3staff annex4svalbardstatement annex5climatechangestatement annex6mediacoverage donors 2 3 4 11 15 18 20 23 26 41 44 45 47 50 backcover photos front cover getty images/robert harding world imagery flickr/ecstaticist alfredo caliz/panos[close]
p. 3
introduction climate change dominated the media in the months leading up to the un climate c change conference in copenhagen at the end of 2009 much of the attention focussed on the nightmare scenarios that would unfold if climate change is not addressed including the oft-repeated assertions that crop yields would drop dramatically this was correctly cited as a motivation to act after all no greater failure could afflict societies anywhere than the failure of their crops and the resulting inability to feed themselves so it seems extraordinary that adapting agriculture to climate change barely warranted a mention in the official documents the trust has worked hard to challenge this complacency in february 2009 with norway we coorganised an anniversary celebration of the opening of the svalbard global seed vault and used the spectacular arctic setting to launch a plea from the assembled climate change and agriculture experts at copenhagen we ask the nations of the world to recognise the urgency of adapting agriculture to climate change that crop diversity is a prerequisite for this adaptation and therefore that the importance of ensuring that the genetic diversity of our crops is properly conserved and available is a basic prerequisite for feeding a warming world yet while agriculture remained unacknowledged in the run up to copenhagen in an apparently parallel universe countries committed to achieve food security at the world summit on food security at the trust we tried to bring these two worlds together issuing a statement to the world s media signed by a remarkable group of over 70 leading thinkers in development no credible or effective agreement to address the challenges of climate change can ignore agriculture and the need for crop adaptation to ensure the world s future food supplies crops of course cannot be adapted to meet climate change or any other challenge without crop diversity and we continue to lay the groundwork for future food security whatever the climate may be that is the main subject of this report and in the pages that follow you will find details of a highly successful year in which more than 40 grant agreements were signed with partners in every corner of the world to conserve use and better understand national and international collections of crop diversity so as international political agreements very slowly begin to join the dots between agriculture and climate change our work continues to gather pace crop diversity is safer this year than last and will be safer again next year we thank all our donors partners and supporters for making this possible and for having the foresight to recognize the urgency of our work margaret catley-carlson chair cary fowler executive director annual report 2009 2 flickr/vivek thakyal[close]
p. 4
highlights signed 42 grant agreements with institutes from all across the world including · · 17 competitive grants to 24 institutes in 22 countries to evaluate priority crop collections for traits essential to climate change adaptation 17 grants to institutes in 42 countries to carry out regeneration and safety duplication of threatened seed samples initiated the first long term grant agreement with a non-cgiar institute an agreement was signed with the secretariat of the pacific community to provide `in perpetuity funding for the collections of aroids and yam managed by the centre for pacific crops and trees launched a third round of the competitive grants award scheme for evaluation activities initiated a new competitive grants scheme for collecting of wild crop relatives or landraces which are entirely missing from genebanks supported the shipment of 127,704 seed samples to the svalbard global seed vault from seven international collections and three national collections held two executive board meetings at irri in los baños philippines and in rome italy held the annual meeting of the donors council in rome italy presented the trust s work programme at the third meeting of the governing body of the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in tunis annual report 2009 3 getty images[close]
p. 5
the global system t the trust is investing in a wide range of fixed-term projects aimed at rescuing threatened crop diversity and enhancing the quality of existing crop collections this secures the building blocks of a global system for the conservation of crop diversity which can then be supported forever by the in-perpetuity grants from the trust s endowment this work is carried out in partnership with the un foundation with the support of the bill melinda gates foundation as well as the grains research and development corporation of australia saving collecting the first step in the process of conserving crop diversity in genebanks is to locate and collect this diversity from farmers fields and from the wild although the greater part of the diversity of many crops has probably been collected there are gaps in the collections of all crops and in particular of those crops of most importance to the poor in addition many of the wild species related to crops are not well represented in genebanks despite the fact that they may be particularly important for climate change adaptation the trust works to identify gaps in collections and to fill these gaps annual report 2009 4 mari tefre/global crop diversity trust[close]
p. 6
charlotte lusty/global crop diversity trust the trust has partnered with scientists at the international center for tropical agriculture ciat and bioversity international to develop a methodology gap analysis which will help scientists identify the most fruitful areas from which to collect and conserve crop wild relatives this methodology has now been completed and gap analysis results have been produced for 12 major crop genepools for more information please visit http gisweb.ciat.cgiar.org gapanalysis in november 2009 the trust launched its first competitive grants scheme for collecting announcing a call for proposals to collect crop wild relatives which are entirely missing from genebanks and to fill geographic gaps in existing collections as revealed by such gap analysis special preference will be given to species and populations thought to contain traits essential for climate change adaptation regenerating like people seeds grow old and die their viability declines when stored for too long and this happens much faster when seeds are kept in poor conditions the process of regeneration involves growing out the accessions stored in genebanks and harvesting fresh seed samples to ensure the diversity lives on this process also provides an important opportunity to study the plants and capture more information about their characteristics as well as to send some of the seed of each accession to an international genebank and to the seed vault in svalbard as a back-up the trust has identified those accessions most at risk and by the end of 2009 the majority of the planned regeneration projects had been initiated with a few also nearing completion 17 new grants for regeneration were signed during the year involving 46 institutes in 42 different countries a number of partners completed their first round of regeneration this year and submitted their first annual progress reports 43,784 accessions have been successfully regenerated so far and safety duplication of these for the svalbard global seed vault has begun svalbard global seed vault the svalbard global seed vault is not an ordinary genebank it is essentially a simple idea a remote facility that provides a naturallyfrozen back-up to existing genebanks around the world in the safest svalbard global seed vault minister of the environment and international development of norway erik solheim un secretary general ban ki-moon and minister of agriculture and food of norway lars peder brekk annual report 2009 5 ministry of agriculture and food norway[close]
p. 7
possible place it also remains a uniquely powerful symbol of the importance of crop diversity and attracts attention to this issue at the very highest levels the trust provides support to developing countries and international organizations to ship safety duplications of their collections to the seed vault in 2009 the trust funded the deposit of a total of 127,704 accessions in the vault bringing the total of trust supported seed samples at the vault to 369,199 a total of 491,526 accessions were held in the vault at the end of 2009 svalbard global seed vault conserving crop diversity for food security the world s seedbanks are vulnerable underfunding wars and extreme weather have all taken their toll in recent years a safety net is needed to make sure that such events do not mean extinction for unique crop varieties this is the purpose of the seed vault the svalbard global seed vault or the doomsday vault as the media have nicknamed it was officially opened on february 26 2008 to serve as the ultimate safety net for one of the world s most important natural resources the seed vault has a capacity of 4.5 million seed samples three times the number of unique samples thought to exist equivalent to about 2 billion seeds the facility started with the deposit of safety duplicates of the international collections managed by the consultative group on international agricultural research cgiar centres as well as a number of key national genebanks the ultimate goal of the vault is to safeguard as much of the world s unique crop genetic material as possible the trust contributes to the seed vault through technical advice and assistance and by providing annual operating support and by facilitating and sponsoring the shipment of the majority of seeds to the vault safety duplicates of the seeds regenerated with funding from the trust are all shipped to the vault as are unique accessions from the international collections held by the cgiar since its opening in 2008 the seed vault has captured the world s attention and highlighted the importance of crop diversity in adapting to climate change on the first anniversary of the opening of the seed vault an event was held drawing together leading figures from the fields of agriculture and climate change to highlight how these frozen seeds and the diversity they contain lie at the heart of our response to the challenges facing our food supply participants issued a statement calling for crop diversity to be acknowledged as an essential prerequisite for climate change adaptation to be placed at the heart of discussions on adapting climate change to be held later the same year see annex 4 for the full statement managing upgrading the infrastructure of several important genebanks requires upgrading if they are to continue carrying out their conservation tasks effectively the trust continues to support the upgrading of two of these key international genebanks the centre for tropical agriculture catie in costa rica and the world vegetable center avrdc the funds from the trust are being used to replace equipment and clear backlogs in essential processes such as regeneration and documentation data management the trust has been working with the united states department of agriculture usda and bioversity international to develop and deploy a state-of-the-art genebank management programme which will be user-friendly flexible and powerful and useful for all sizes and types of genebanks anywhere in the world the programme will be made freely available to genebanks to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations annual report 2009 6[close]
p. 8
a prototype of the system has been developed and is being tested the deployment of the new system supported by training of key personnel is scheduled for 2010 cryopreservation crops that do not produce seed or that have seeds that are hard to store cannot be conserved by simply keeping them safe in cold dry conditions in conventional seed genebanks alternative methods for storage of such vegetatively propagated crops are expensive this problem is compounded by the fact that these crops are often of particular importance to the poor and so have seen little investment in the past the trust is therefore supporting research into cryopreservation storing plant tissue in liquid nitrogen at -196°c which is may be a more cost effective and sustainable than the alternatives used to date last year the trust entered into partnership with seven institutes to develop and refine protocols for cryopreservation of aroids cassava sweet potato and yams work is well under way and in april 2009 the partners took part in a cryopreservation symposium and hands-on workshop in leuven belgium co-funded by the trust and bioversity international using evaluation in order for the genetic diversity held in genebanks to be of use to farmers it must be screened to identify useful traits such as resistance to pests and disease or tolerance to heat or cold samples with these traits can then be included in crop improvement programmes the trust is providing competitive grants to screen collections for the characteristics with the greatest potential for crop improvement targeting traits of importance to the poor in particular in the context of climate change the second call for proposals under the competitive grants scheme received 63 proposals following their assessment 17 grants were agreed with 24 institutes in 22 countries covering 25 crop collections these include testing sweet potato for disease resistance and cold tolerance wheat for stresses associated with heat and drought and rice for drought salinity and pest and disease resistance after the first two rounds of the competitive grants scheme the trust has signed 30 grant agreements for evaluation involving a total of 41 institutes in 33 countries and 45 crop collections a third call for evaluation proposals was issued in november 2009 global information system development in order for crop diversity to be used as effectively as possible it is vital not only that collections are safe and well managed but that information about them is easily available to potential users worldwide the trust is supporting the development of genesys an online information portal which will link genebanks worldwide the project run in partnership with bioversity international will connect existing international information systems such as the cgiar system-wide information network for genetic resources singer and the european cooperative programme for crop genetic resources network s web portal eurisco with the databases of national genebanks this will enable plant breeders and researchers to search the contents of multiple genebanks worldwide to locate and obtain the genetic resources they need in 2009 a prototype of the system was developed and is undergoing testing annual report 2009 7[close]
p. 9
pre-breeding pre-breeding involves identifying desired traits within varieties of crops and starting to incorporate them into modern breeding materials this link between genetic resources and breeding programmes is a vital step in the use of conserved crop diversity six pre-breeding projects were initiated in 2009 addressing traits associated with pest and disease resistance as well as enhanced yield and improved nutritional quality the projects are part of the trust s support for the global partnership initiative for plant breeding capacity building a partnership facilitated by the food and agriculture organization fao of the united nations through this initiative more than 100 scientists have also been trained in pre-breeding coconut embryo transfer transporting live coconuts is complicated which is why the trust supports research into better methods of moving coconut germplasm as a result of the grant signed with the marc delorme station of the centre national de recherche agronomique in côte d ivoire in 2008 seed nuts of unique tall accessions have this year been produced through controlled pollination another partnership with bioversity international on behalf of the coconut genetic resources network cogent has developed and will test an improved embryo transfer protocol this project involves national institutes in sri lanka papua new guinea philippines as well as côte d ivoire they will first test the protocol on dwarf varieties and then pending a successful outcome use the refined protocol to move the unique accessions of tall varieties from côte d ivoire to different national collections to safety duplicate them world map indicating countries in which work is being carried out with funding from the trust annual report 2009 8[close]
p. 10
cumulative grant giving all the projects described above will contribute to the improvement of existing crop collections making sure that their long-term conservation is feasible the cumulative effect of these grants is therefore significant as the long-term grants from the trust s endowment are only provided to genebanks holding unique crop material in facilities meeting high international standards the table below lists the fixed-term grants awarded until the end of 2009 at the end of the year total commitments came to usd 11.9 million for grants and activities associated with the global system for use and conservation over 100 institutes in more than 80 countries have now received support from the trust it is worth underscoring however that in every case the benefits of this work extend far beyond the borders of any single country this list does not include the long-term grants provided by the trust which are outlined in the following section cumulative giving of fixed-term grants by activity since 2007 activity collecting regeneration upgrading cryopreservation coconut embryo research evaluation information systems pre-breeding grants 1 50 7 6 3 30 2 6 institutes 1 88 7 6 5 41 2 6 countries 1 74 7 6 5 33 2 5 the work undertaken in partnership with the united nations foundation with funding from the bill melinda gates foundation was externally reviewed during the year experts from from australia brazil and ethiopia spent over three weeks undertaking the mid-term review in june 2009 which provided an important opportunity for the trust to receive detailed feedback on its work programme with implications beyond the gates foundation-funded project annual report 2009 9 charlotte lusty/global crop diversity trust mid-term review[close]
p. 11
in their report the review panel noted that the trust was performing at a high standard and that the project will make a strong contribution towards the long-term security of crop genetic resources and will facilitate better use of these resources by plant breeders and other germplasm users worldwide the members of the panel expressed satisfaction with the way the trust has implemented the project and the reception of the project by partners most of whom are vigorously and positively engaged they also noted the measureable progress the trust has made in the face of sometimes considerable technical and political obstacles a pathway for dealing with an indefinite future around 90 of the world s yam production is harvested and consumed in the `yam belt of west africa in large parts of benin which lies squarely in the yam belt yam culture is an integral part of community life and sustainability expert farmers in certain villages actively bring in tubers from wild yam plants found in the forest and promising new domesticated forms continue to be integrated into the rich diversity of yam landraces cultured and consumed in rural communities the trust-funded project for the regeneration and characterisation of the yam collection in benin is providing an opportunity for farmers to grow and test landraces from distant regions within the country dr alexandre dansi of the university of abomey-calavi the project manager has adopted a novel approach and is carrying out the regeneration of the national collection entirely in farmers fields employing farmers together with technicians to characterise and evaluate the varieties past experience has shown that farmers use different and in some cases more detailed characteristics or traits to distinguish varieties as compared to scientists one of the benefits of this approach has been to stimulate heightened interest in yam production and diversity over a wide area in benin dansi reports that although city market prices for yam are high compared to other roots and tubers production is relatively labour-intensive and the loweryielding or less valuable traditional varieties are being lost happily as part of the project dansi has already sanitised and packed more than 800 yam varieties in a car and sent them to ibadan nigeria where they are being duplicated safely in the international yam collection managed by the international institute of tropical agriculture iita at iita the benin yams will be planted in the field collection and also conserved in tissue culture dna will be extracted from the samples and analysed enabling scientists to determine just how unique in genetic terms the diversity in benin is compared to other countries in the region the kind of information that is important to support decisions on which accessions should be part of core collections and deserving of further evaluation this particular pathway from the hundreds or thousands of varieties across rural communities to a few representative specimens in the long-term cryopreserved collection at iita illustrates how a global system might work to maximize effectiveness and efficiency farmers nurture develop and pass on a wide diversity of materials and cultural practices as long as their efforts provide returns in some form outside of the trends and pressures of the farmers environment in the international collections the vast range of diversity is represented conserved securely and may be sourced by everyone for the indefinite future annual report 2009 10[close]
p. 12
long-term funding w while the value of crop diversity is undisputed its conservation is far from guaranteed funding for genebanks remains unstable and unpredictable despite the fact that it is the reliability of funding that is probably the single most important risk to effective long-term conservation the endowment fund of the trust seeks to resolve this offering precisely the year-on-year guaranteed funding required to ensure that crop diversity is safe and available forever as the fund reaches its optimal size the annual interest accrued will be sufficient to provide in-perpetuity funding for the operations of all the world s most important collections of crop diversity in doing so the trust is contributing to the objectives of the millennium development goals the convention on biological diversity and the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture long-term financial support is provided to collections held and managed in accordance with international standards all recipients must have undertaken to cooperate to promote the long-term conservation and sustainable utilization of the ex-situ collections of germplasm and place them under the terms of the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture annual report 2009 11 warrick page/gettyimages[close]
p. 13
distribution of grants by year and crop usd 000 usd 000 distribution of grants by year and crop usd 000 year 2009 2008 2007 2006 aroids banana barley bean cassava faba bean forages grasspea lentil pearl millet rice sorghum wheat yam 25 0 0 0 153 150 100 0 102 100 0 0 153 150 150 0 204 200 0 0 41 40 0 0 122 120 80 0 82 80 80 0 41 40 0 0 102 100 0 0 260 255 250 200 153 150 150 0 153 150 0 0 147 120 100 0 annual report 2009 12[close]
p. 14
2009 progress during 2009 the trust provided funding for a total of 14 crops in 17 collections held in-trust by 8 cgiar genebanks one regional genebank and the svalbard global seed vault this year the trust was very happy to sign its first long-term grant agreement with a non-cgiar centre the agreement with the secretariat of pacific community s spc centre for pacific crops and trees cepact will guarantee the conservation of the region s in-trust collections of aroids and yams for the indefinite future the trust and spc are very enthusiastic about this partnership and what it means for the sustainable conservation and utilisation of the region s important crop diversity and therefore for food and nutritional security and economic growth in the pacific region aroids minor crops in world trade but important for food security aroids are widespread throughout the humid tropics the main species are taro from south-east asia and the cocoyam from tropical america the aroids rarely enter into world commerce as they are mostly grown in subsistence agriculture systems and for local markets h owever they play a substantial role in the food security of millions of people in the tropics the starch rich corms the aroid s short underground stems are the main product but the leaves and the flowers are also eaten aroids are used as emergency or famine foods in times of food shortage some taro cultivars have extreme flood tolerance and can give substantial yields even in places too wet for paddy-field agriculture the aroids are known as orphan crops meaning they receive minimal attention from modern plant breeding relative to their importance as a food source the crops in this group clearly have great potential and there is considerable diversity both within species and between them apart from the spc funding long-term funding was maintained at 2008 levels other new longterm grants were not issued as part of the conservative financial strategy required to minimize the affects of the global financial crisis on our investments it is hoped that three additional crop collections will be funded in 2010 grant outcomes and impacts the long-term grant reports for 2008 received in 2009 represent the second annual round of reporting by grantees and provide the first opportunity to see early trends across priority genebank activities the 2007 reports provided a baseline for pre-trust investment and the 2008 reports have therefore provided an opportunity to see the impact of trust investment on essential core activities overall the results for the core conservation activities were positive and the performance indicators showed trends in the right directions backlogs in core genebank operations such as regeneration viability testing and safety duplication are being reduced the numbers of accessions conserved under best practice long-term conditions and being documented and made publicly available are increasing this demonstrates the importance of reliable funding for the planning of essential genebank activities in just over one year 2007-2008 · regeneration backlogs have been reduced from an average of 51 of accessions requiring regeneration to restore viability in 2007 to an average of only 19 annual report 2009 13 niel palmer/ciat[close]
p. 15
· the average levels of seeds requiring viability testing has also decreased from an average of 64 of collections in 2007 to 30 · the portion of seed collections currently stored under agreed scientific and technical best practice long-term conditions has increased from 76 in 2007 to 83 most centres are very close to reaching 100 long-term storage for seed some like irri and cimmyt had already achieved it and others showed good progress in 2008 vegetatively propagated material is more costly to conserve in terms of time and resources and it will take longer for these crop collections to be adequately conserved for the long term distribution levels were generally greater in 2008 than in the previous year and this included a slight increase in the number of new/different accessions compared to a baseline of the past 4 years in addition the inter-centre working group of cgiar cenebank managers agreed to harmonize their genebank performance indicators with those developed and being used by the trust for long-term grants monitoring so that only one set of performance indicators are being used given that no suitable indicators for monitoring genebank performance existed previously this adoption by the international genebank community is very welcome and should ensure greater efficiency as well as promote best practice further impact of trust funding the narrative reports provide interesting detail on the impact of the trust s funding many noted that the grants have guaranteed the international status of the collections and have had a dramatic impact on their operations the funds have ensured the continued upgrading of the collections regeneration safety backup and multiplication for building up stock for distribution the overall picture shows that · more accessions are being made available to the multilateral system of the international treaty allowing breeders and curators a wider choice of material with which to work · accessions are better documented and thus more easily accessible by the scientific community annual report 2009 14 charlotte lusty/global crop diversity trust[close]
Comments
no comments yet