Floristic approach

A floristic approach encompasses all CWR that occur in a defined geographical area, which may be a sub-national area such as an administrative unit or protected area, a whole country, a supra-national region or even the whole world. The geographical area may contain all, or part of, the ranges of the plant taxa that occur. This approach is commonly associated with the development of a NSAP for CWR conservation.

At national level: CWR NSAPs for the Republic of Mauritius

Coffea macrocarpa A. Rich., a tertiary wild relative of Arabic coffee, Vulnerable (according to the 2001 IUCN Categories and Criteria) and endemic to Mauritius. (Photo: Mukesh Rughoo)

In the Republic of Mauritius, NSAPs for CWR conservation and sustainable use were developed independently for the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues. This means that two separate CWR checklists were developed, one for each island. Both CWR checklists were obtained through a process of data harmonization and cross-checking of the national flora of both Mauritius and Rodrigues with the Mansfeld’s World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (Hanelt and IPK 2001, available here), taking into account the broad range of crop types (food, forage and fodder, ornamental, medicinal, and forestry), as well as a broad definition of a CWR which is any species in the same genus as a crop. 528 and 142 CWR were identified in Mauritius and Rodrigues, respectively. Based on the socio-economic value of the related crop, utilization potential for crop improvement, relative distribution and the IUCN Red List Categories (as an indication of relative threat), CWR on each of the islands were prioritized for conservation. Eighteen and nine CWR taxa were prioritized for Mauritius and Rodrigues, respectively. An ecogeographic survey, including a field prospection, was carried out to support the identification of priority CWR hotspots on each of the islands separately and to identify the main threats affecting priority CWR. Additionally, a gap analysis helped identify the gaps in in situ and ex situ conservation of priority CWR. Conservation recommendations were then based on the results obtained and included in the NSAP for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of CWR for the Republic of Mauritius.

Source: Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security (2016)

At national level: checklist of Portuguese CWR

Vicia bithynica (L.) L., a tertiary wild relative of faba beans with potential for conferring resistance to rust and Ascochyta Blight, in Mafra, Portugal. (Photo: Joana Magos Brehm)

The Portuguese CWR checklist, which includes 2262 taxa, was developed from a geographically filtered list from the CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean (Kell et al. 2005). To ensure that all globally important crop genera as well as nationally grown crops were considered, several documents were used for validation: the complete list of agricultural, vegetable, fruit and ornamental species produced by the Portuguese National Catalogue of Varieties (DGPC 2003), the Temperate and Boreal Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (TBFRA-2000) for the forestry crops (UNECE/FAO 2000), a priority list of ornamental genera representing the recommendations from the Herbaceous Ornamental Crop Germplasm Committee (HOCGC) (OPGC 2002) and a report by Pimenta (2004) on an updated list of ornamental plant species grown in Portugal. Twenty‐two species were identified as conservation priorities based on eight criteria (native status, economic value, threatened status, in situ and ex situ conservation status, global and national distribution and legislation) and by combining different prioritization schemes. An ecogeographic survey, gap analysis, and species distribution modelling with current and future climate data were undertaken for target species. Additionally, a genetic diversity analysis for a subset of priority species was carried out. The results obtained with these different methodologies were combined in order to provide in situ and ex situ conservation recommendations for these wild plant resources.

Source: Magos Brehm (2009), Magos Brehm et al. (2008, 2010)

At regional level: CWR catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean

The CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean (Kell et al. 2005) was created by generating a list of crop genera, matching these genera with those that occur in Europe and the Mediterranean, and then extracting the taxa within the matching genera. The crop genus list was generated from four information sources: Mansfeld’s World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (Hanelt and IPK 2001, available here), the ‘Enumeration of cultivated forest plant species’ (Schultze-Motel 1966) for forestry species, the Community Plant Variety Office list of plant varieties for ornamental plants and the Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Resources of the World (MAPROW) (U. Schippmann, pers. comm. 2004). This was then matched with floristic data in Euro+Med PlantBase (version 2006), which is a database of the Euro-Mediterranean flora, including data on the status of occurrence of taxa in countries and/or sub-national units. The CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean was generated by extracting the taxa within the relevant genera in Euro+Med PlantBase that matched the identified crop genera.

Source: Kell et al. (2008)

The Interactive Toolkit for Crop Wild Relative Conservation Planning was developed within the framework of the SADC CWR project www.cropwildrelatives.org/sadc-cwr-project (2014-2016),
which was co-funded by the European Union and implemented through ACP-EU Co-operation Programme in Science and Technology (S&T II) by the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States.
Grant agreement no FED/2013/330-210.