The International Plant Sentinel Network: an update on phase 2

Invasive plant pests and pathogens pose a considerable threat to plant health worldwide. With increasing globalisation of trade in plants and plant material, and the effects of climate change, this threat is predicted to continue to rise. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of these harmful invasive organisms which cause large-scale environmental and economic damage. A significant issue in managing this threat is predicting which organisms will pose a threat in the future. Sentinel plants are individuals found outside their native ranges that can be surveyed for damage by organisms they would not otherwise encounter. Monitoring plant sentinels can build knowledge and understanding of pest/host relationships to support the development of management plans and risk assessments. Botanic gardens and arboreta, whose collections are estimated to include 30–40 per cent of all known plant species, many of which are exotic, are unique and under-utilised resources that can support sentinel research. The International Plant Sentinel Network (IPSN) consists of botanic gardens and arboreta, National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) and plant health scientists who collaborate to provide an early-warning system for new and emerging plant pests and pathogens. Members provide scientific evidence to NPPOs to inform plant health activities and thus help safeguard susceptible plant species. In the UK, the IPSN conducts research activities prioritised by a Research and Development committee and preliminary findings of recent research activities are outlined in this paper. The IPSN also focuses on increasing knowledge and awareness, seeking best practice, developing standardisedapproaches and providing training materials and methodologies for monitoring and surveying to enable gardens to contribute to sentinel research. Through multi-disciplinary collaboration and information sharing the IPSN aims to reduce the risk that alien invasive pests and pathogens pose to global plant health

An International Plant Sentinel Network

Invasive plant pests and pathogens pose a major threat to biodiversity around the world, amplified in recent years by the globalisation of trade in plants and plant material and the impacts of climate change. Botanic gardens and arboreta offer a unique opportunity for the identification and further investigation of new and emerging pest and pathogen risks, which can provide valuable information for the creation of prevention, eradication and control programmes. The International Plant Sentinel Network (IPSN) is being developed to provide a platform for coordination, information exchange and support for sentinel plant research within botanic gardens and arboreta. Alongside IPSN Member Gardens, the network includes plant protection professionals and National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) from around the world. The IPSN provides tools which will help to enable gardens to contribute to research by increasing knowledge and awareness among garden staff, developing standardised approaches and providing training materials and methodologies for monitoring and surveying. The network also promotes links with local professional diagnostic support that can help aid the early detection and rapid response to new pest incursions, thus protecting valuable, and often unique, plant collections

Global Programs: A New Vision in Agricultural Research

Issues in Agriculture no. 12 from the series "Issues in Agriculture" published by the CGIAR Secretariat

Unlocking plant resources to support food security and promote sustainable agriculture

As the world's population is increasing, humanity is facing both shortages (hunger) and excesses (obesity) of calorie and nutrient intakes. Biodiversity is fundamental to addressing this double challenge, which involves a far better understanding of the global state of food resources. Current estimates suggest that there are at least 7,039 edible plant species, in a broad taxonomic sense, which includes 7,014 vascular plants. This is in striking contrast to the small handful of food crops that provide the majority of humanity's calorie and nutrient intake. Most of these 7,039 edible species have additional uses, the most common being medicines (70%), materials (59%), and environmental uses (40%). Species of major food crops display centers of diversity, as previously proposed, while the rest of edible plants follow latitudinal distribution patterns similarly to the total plant diversity, with higher species richness at lower latitudes. The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List includes global conservation assessments for at least 30% of edible plants, with ca. 86% of them conserved ex situ. However, at least 11% of those species recorded are threatened. We highlight multipurpose NUS of plants from different regions of the world, which could be key for a more resilient, sustainable, biodiverse, and community participation-driven new “green revolution.” Furthermore, we explore how fungi could diversify and increase the nutritional value of our diets. NUS, along with the wealth of traditional knowledge about their uses and practices, offer a largely untapped resource to support food security and sustainable agriculture. However, for these natural resources to be unlocked, enhanced collaboration among stakeholders is vital

European genetic resources conservation in a rapidly changing world: three existential challenges for the crop, forest and animal domains in the 21st century

16 Pág.Even though genetic resources represent a fundamental reservoir of options to achieve sustainable development goals in a changing world, they are overlooked in the policy agenda and severely threatened. The conservation of genetic resources relies on complementary in situ and ex situ approaches appropriately designed for each type of organism. Environmental and socioeconomic changes raise new challenges and opportunities for sustainable use and conservation of genetic resources. Aiming at a more integrated and adaptive approach, European scientists and genetic resources managers with long experience in the agricultural crop, animal and forestry domains joined their expertise to address three critical challenges: (1) how to adapt genetic resources conservation strategies to climate change, (2) how to promote in situ conservation strategies and (3) how can genetic resources conservation contribute to and benefit from agroecological systems. We present here 31 evidence-based statements and 88 key recommendations elaborated around these questions for policymakers, conservation actors and the scientific community. We anticipate that stakeholders in other genetic resources domains and biodiversity conservation actors across the globe will have interest in these crosscutting and multi-actor recommendations, which support several biodiversity conservation policies and practices.This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817580, GenRes Bridge project.Peer reviewe

The use of tissue culture techniques in the developpement of selected crops suitable for productions in the Caribbean

The emphasis of this paper is on crops that hold potential for increased production for export markets. The criteria on which crop selection is based are: increasing markets in USA, Canada and EC, and experience of production within the region. Figures for market size and existing production are given. The major non-traditional export earning crops for which the market is expanding at present are identified as mango, avocado, hot pepper, ginger, melon and pineapple. In addition, papaya is identified as a crop which is traditionally produced in the region, and for which the market is expanding rapidly. Tissue culture techniques are particularly useful in the development of improved varieties of papaya, ginger and pineapple, and details of these techniques are given. For papaya, micropropagated plants bear earlier and frequent replanting may allow good production despite the presence of disease organisms. Ginger cannot be improved by traditional breeding programmes and tissue culture techniques include the use of colchicine to double chromosome numbers, thus producing larger rhizomes. For pineapples, micropropagation allows the rapid propagation of new varieties, and the costs of producing plants this way are outlined

The contribution of botanic gardens to ex situ conservation through seed banking

Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation calls for ‘at least 75 per cent of threatened plant species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least 20 per cent available for recovery and restoration programmes by 2020’.Botanic gardens make a significant contribution to ex situ conservation of wild species with more than a third of plant species represented in botanic gardens collections. These collections are a combination of living collection and seed banked material. Seed banking can provide an efficient form of conservation for wild plant genetic diversity.Information from Botanic Gardens Conservation International's (BGCI) databases (GardenSearch, PlantSearch, ThreatSearch and GlobalTreeSearch) has been analysed as well as survey data to report on global, regional and national seed banking trends.Information from BGCI's databases indicates that there are at least 350 seed banking botanic gardens in 74 countries. In total 56,987 taxa have been banked including more than 9000 taxa that are threatened with extinction. 6881 tree species are stored in ex situ seed bank collections. More than half (3562) of these tree species are single country endemics and represent species from more than 166 countries.This study suggests that institutions are increasingly conserving plant species via seed banking. However the majority of species in collections that have a conservation assessment are not threatened with extinction. This disjunction between species that are threatened and those conserved in seed banks needs to be addressed. Data from BGCI's databases can be used to enable prioritisation of threatened plant species for collection and conservation in seed banks. Further recommendations for botanic gardens involved in seed conservation are presented. Keywords: Seed banking, GSPC, ex situ conservation, Conservation assessments, Botanic garden