Relevant links for CWR practitioners

Below is a list of useful links to guide practitioners in the many processes and methodologies necessary to implement effective CWR action plans and strategies. To go to the website just click on the link title.

Atlas of Crop Wild Relatives of AustraliaThis Atlas brings together detailed information on 54 species of wild plants related to global crops, that have distribution within Australia.
AgroAtlas of Russia and Neighbouring CountriesThe AgroAtlas brings together information on the geographic distribution and biology of crop plants and their wild relative species.
Global Atlas of Crop Wild Relatives The Crop Wild Relative Global Atlas provides information on species distribution and collection priorities for the wild relatives of globally important major and minor food crops.
Atlas of Crop Wild Relatives of GuatemalaThe Atlas provides detailed information on 105 species or subspecies of wild Guatemalan plants that are related to crops, including their description, distribution, diversity and conservation status. The species are organized into genepools corresponding to the 29 crops that were chosen for this study because of their economic, cultural and biological importance.
Atlas of Wild PotatoesThis Atlas describes the ecogeographic distribution of wild potatoes occurring in the Americas, from the southwestern United States to central Argentina and Chile. 

Conservation Gateway 

The Gateway is a website for the conservation practitioner, scientist, and decision-maker. It provides a database that is a collaborative effort of an extensive network of formal and informal partners to make progress on conservation challenges globally by sharing the most up-to-date information on conservation work. 

PGR Secure helpdesk: CWR resourcesThe PGR Secure helpdesk provides a number of resources to aid and inform the national CWR conservation strategy planning process. It also provides a contact for one-to-one guidance on any aspect of national CWR conservation strategy planning, or for access to some digitized data sets.
In Situ Conservation of CWR - eLearning Modules

The In Situ Conservation of CWR-eLearning Modules is set of supplementary training to tools to be used with Crop Wild Relatives- A Manual of in situ Conservation. The modules were designed to help conservationists gain preliminary insight into the methods involved in the effective conservation of CWR. 

IUCN Conservation ToolsIUCN's updated guide to conservation actions. Find latest tools on assessment and monitoring, policy, education and awareness raising.
CWR-AEGRO - Population Level Information SystemCWR-AEGRO-PLIS allows you to search for occurrences of populations of Avena, Beta, Brassica and Prunus by taxonomy and geography.
A-Z Guide of Areas of Biodiversity ImportanceA collection of the world's different areas of biodiversity importance. The website is created to provide concise and relevant information about key biodiversity areas like World Heritage Sites and Ramsar Sites.
GapAnalysisProvides collectors (and other people interested in ex situ and in situ conservation of CWR) with up-to-date information on areas, traits and taxa that are still unrepresented among target CGIAR genebank collections.
Protected planetA geographic online database covering almost all protected areas on the planet.
GenResIS Genetic reserve information systemThis website provides information on recommended locations, mainly in protected areas, suited for the establishment of genetic reserves for Avena, Beta, Brassica and Prunus targeted crop wild relative taxa across Europe
Crop Wild Relatives & Climate ChangeThis webpage holds tools and resources that were developed by the project “Adapting agriculture to climate change: collecting, protecting and preparing crop wild relatives.” They are to be used by individuals and institutions that are interested in collecting, conserving, and using crop wild relatives in breeding. 
CWRSGThe CWR Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union (SSC/IUCN) - a network of crop wild relative experts dedicated to promote the conservation and use of CWR.
The AgriCultures NetworkThe AgriCultures Network promote sustainable family farming by the production of magazines and other media to build knowledge and exchange information.
Crop Biodiversity and Breeding InformaticsThis research group focuses on analyzing genetic variation and adaptive traits in wild relatives, land races and modern varieties of crop plants, as well as developing strategies to utilize genetic variation in modern plant breeding programs.
Crops for the FutureThe International Centre for Underutilised Crops (ICUC) - new and continuously updated information on underutilized crops and related issues.
PlantSciUK Plant Science Community - a central resource for all those involved in Plant Science Research; scientific breakthroughs, latest funding opportunities and scientists working in any area of Plant Science.
Global Crop Diversity Trust 

The Global Crop Diversity Trust is an independent international organization that exists to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. They have helped to implemented the projectAdapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives”, which is working to collect many of the most important crop wild relative species, ensure their long-term conservation, and facilitate their use in breeding new, improved crops. 

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides information and analyses on the status, trends and threats to species in order to inform and catalyse action for biodiversity conservation.

The Crop Genebank Knowledge Base (CGKB)Features conservation procedures for genebanks and information on germplasm management strategies. Nine crops – banana, barley, cassava, chickpea, forage grasses and legumes, maize, rice, wheat – are already featured in detail.
Genesys 

Genesys is a global portal to information about Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA). It is a gateway from which germplasm accessions from genebanks around the world can be easily found and ordered.

Genbank Wildpflanzen für Ernährung und LandwirtschaftGerman national genebank "wild plants for agriculture and nutrition"; aims to ensure the availability and use of wild PGR. (website in German only)
Lieberman GenebankLocated within the Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement (ICCI) in Tel Aviv, the Harold and Adele Lieberman genebank stores the largest collection of wild relatives of wheat, barley and oat in Israel.
KomugiKOMUGI is a wheat database created in 1996. The database includes original accessions of Triticum and Aegilops collected in their places of origin, and a number of rye and oat accessions. It also contains the Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat and gene sequence data.
National Biodiversity Data Centre CWR website and databaseThe website and database provide species profiles for 102 important CWR species growing in Ireland.
Wild Bean Database (PHASEO) A collection of wild beans held by the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. It currently includes 1750 accessions representing 213 taxa of the Phaseoleae tribe. Phaseolus and Vigna are the most represented, but the the collection also includes material of 24 other genera, e.g. Centrosema, Lablab, MacroptiliumMacrotyloma.
National Fruit Collection Provides information and pictures of apple varieties. 
Bioversity International Collecting Mission Database

This database provides access to the original passport data of more than 220,000 samples collected around the world during Bioversity International supported missions. Approximately 150,000 samples are currently geo-referenced and displayed on the website's interactive map. 

Eat the Weeds

Information regarding hundreds of edible wild plants and other foods published with common and scientific name.

CWR in GRIN Taxonomy for Plants 

This database classifies crop wild relatives into primary, secondary, tertiary, and graft-stock groupings to express their degree of genetic relatedness to the associated crops.

ECPGR wild species conservation groupWeb pages of the European Cooperative Programme on Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) working group on wild species conservation in genetic reserves
Harlan and de Wet Crop Wild Relative Inventory

The Harlan and de Wet Crop Wild Relative Inventory uses both genepool concepts as well as documentation of CWR species that have been successfully used in breeding in the past to provide a priority list of 1400 CWR species, along with key ancillary data such as their regional and national occurrence, seed storage behavior and herbaria housing major collections of CWR.

The Euro+Med PlantBase The Euro+Med PlantBase provides an on-line database and information system for the vascular plants of Europe and the Mediterranean region, against an up-to-date and critically evaluated consensus taxonomic core of the species concerned.  
Nordic CWR web siteInformation about CWR in the 5 Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden.
WIEWS: World Information and Early Warning System on PGRFAWIEWS is the information system used by FAO for the preparation of periodic, country-driven global assessments of the status of conservation and use of PGRFA. WIEWS also monitors, on the basis of country reports, the implementation of the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, adopted in 2011.
Wild Celery Network The Wild Celery Network was established in 2019 as a result of a model and demonstration project and is coordinated by the Julius Kühn Institute. It is a network of genetic reserves, comprising at least 45 plant populations, which ensures that the intraspecific diversity of the wild celery relatives is preserved.

Crop Wild Relatives-
A Key Asset to
sustainable agriculture

Ehsan Dulloo (Conservation and Availability Programme Leader at Bioversity International) and Nigel Maxted (Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK, and PGR Secure Project Coordinator) explain why crop wild relatives are important and how monitoring, conserving and using them is critical to make agriculture more sustainable in the face of climate change. 
The Importance of Crop Wild Relatives Infographic  A visual representation of information pertaining to the importance of crop wild relatives. 
AGENT AGENT is a 5 years’ project led by the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research which aims to unlock the full potential of the biological material stored in gene banks around the globe by using FAIR international data standards and an open digital infrastructure for the management of plant genetic resources. In AGENT, the main goal is to establish a global genebank network to sustainably unlock the genetic diversity of food crops for future generations and make them intuitively accessible for modern breeding programmes.
Farmer’s Pride Networking, Partnerships and Tools to Enhance in situ Conservation of European Plant Genetic Resources (short name, Farmer’s Pride) is a three-year EU-funded project which started in November 2017. This project’s main goal is to establish the European Network for In Situ Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources, to improve and promote best practices, to enhance the use of conserved plant genetic resources and influence policy.
GenRes Bridge GenRes Bridge is a three-year project funded by the European Commission (Horizon 2020 scheme). The project aims at strengthening the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources by accelerating collaborative efforts and widening capacities in plant, forest and animal domains.