Relevance of in situ conservation

Though still far from completion, substantial germplasm banks have been created as a means of ex situ conservation. ICARDA holds approximately 3000 Aegilops, 1000 wild Triticum, 1800 wild Hordeum, 700 wild relatives of lentil and chickpea, 6500 Medicago, 3500 Trifolium, 1500 Lathyrus, 3000 Vicia and 5000 accessions from other pasture and forage legumes.

(h) Both the field gene-banks and the community-managed
      pasture nurseries will provide another source of income to
      the communities in which they are established, through the
      sale of seed and root stock;
(i) National agricultural, environmental and land use policies
      and legislation, and their implications for agrobiodiversity
      conservation, will have been analyzed; where necessary,
      alternative policy and legislative options will have been
      developed and, where feasible, tested at the project sites;
      and, where appropriate and in the national interest, these
      options will have been presented to the appropriate
      authorities for legislative reform.
(j) Interventions developed within the project target sites will
      have been communicated to other communities and land
      users through organized field visits and demonstrations of
      the management techniques and uses of field gene-bank,
      pasture nurseries, water harvesting and soil conservation
      structures, and the sale and exchange of locally-adapted
      root stocks and seed;
(k) Public awareness of the importance of biodiversity
      conservation and environmental degradation will have
      been increased through public open days, media events,
      dissemination of information packets and school syllabus
      material;
(l) National capacities in the conservation and use of
      agrobiodiversity will have been strengthened through the
      graduate and short-term training of national staff provided
      during the project;
(m) Regional cooperation and the exchange of experiences in
      the conservation of agrobiodiversity will have been
      strengthened through the project;
(n) Options for extending the project activities to other sites
      within the countries involved, and to other countries in the
      region, will have been identified; and
(o) Lessons learned during the project will have been
      disseminated internationally through publications, a project
      web-site, and other international media.

Target beneficiaries

(a) The communities within the target sites and through
      extension efforts other rural communities whose
      livelihoods depend on the sustainable use of the genetic
      resources of  the target species in agricultural production;
(b) National programs of the participating countries/authority,
      through institution strengthening and training of the staff
      working in agrobiodiversity conservation
(c) Ultimately, the entire population (and future generations) of
      the countries/authority will benefit from the sustainable in
      situ conservation of the plant genetic resources of
      important agricultural species.

Target species and target areas

Focus is being given to 10 target crops (or crop groups) of global significance and their wild relatives, all of which originated from the Near East or Central Asian regions and have been subjected to severe genetic erosion.
        Selection of the target areas was undertaken with the aim of capturing the maximum genetic diversity of the target crops in the minimum number of areas possible. The target areas were therefore selected on the basis of the presence of target species, the representativeness of major ecosystems, and the suitability of working conditions (including willingness of local communities to participate and the potential of impact). Two target areas were selected in each country and one or more sites chosen in each of the target areas to include the diversity of environments.

        ACSAD's field gene bank contains around 420 native and exotic varieties of drought-hardy species of fruit trees, including 130 sources of almond (Amygdalus sp.), 74 varieties of olive, 108 varieties of fig, 22 varieties of pistachio, and 77 varieties of vine grape, in addition to a few wild relatives of various multiple-use trees, such as Ziziphus jujupa, Ceratonia siliqua, and Crataegus sp.  Many native and exotic ecotypes of Salsola, Atriplex, Lathyrus, Vicia, Stipa, Oryzopsis, and Agropyron are conserved in Wadi Al-Azeeb  range gene bank.
        In situ and on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity has recently been increasingly stressed by national and international institutions as it will allow for dynamic conservation, preservation of larger genetic diversity and transmission of related local knowledge. This new dimension in conservation requires innovative approaches and close collaboration with national programs and the participation of local communities.

Project strategy

The project strategy is to develop community-driven in situ and on-farm agrobiodiversity conservation initiatives in representative, targeted areas of global agrobiodiversity significance. These community-driven initiatives will be supported by national, legislative, social and economic policies adapted to agrobiodiversity conservation during the project process, and benefit from the institutional capacity strengthened through personnel training, and regional networking and support. The twinning of specialized international and regional institutions such as ICARDA, IPGRI and ACSAD with national institutions participating in the project will greatly enhance the synergism of the project. Awareness promotion is a priority at all levels of the project. The involvement of land users as primary participants is fundamental to agrobiodiversity management. Innovative approaches to in situ and on-farm conservation are being developed alongside appropriate resource management which will, at the same time, maintain the productive capacity of the resources and secure the economic viability of the community.
        The project will strengthen institutional and community capacity, in order to phase in a progressively greater national contribution to agrobiodiversity conservation and management. The project implementation will focus on indigenous technical knowledge in communities concerning the target crops and their uses, build trust and bring people and government institutions into a collaborative mode of work. Issues concerning indigenous property rights will also be addressed in the process.

Expected project outcomes

The long-term, global objective of the project is to ensure the continuous availability of agrobiodiversity in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority that is essential to the sustainable development of agriculture in that region, as well as to global food security and production. As a result of the project:
(a) Information on the distribution and abundance of genetic
     diversity in the target areas, and the socioeconomic circum
     stances of communities and land users in the target areas,
     will be available in national and regional databases, inte-
     grated within GIS, for use in long-term monitoring and
     impact analysis.
(b) Wild relatives of agricultural species will be conserved in
     identified locations through the adoption of community
     based habitat management and modified or alternative land
     use practices
(c) Alternative income-earning opportunities based on the
     above conservation of wild species, and alternative land
     use practices, will have been identified and adopted by
     communities.
(d) Land races of target species will be conserved on-farm
     through the full participation of farmers in the selection of
     adapted land races and mixtures;
(e) The cultivated target species will have been integrated into
     existing or alternative crop rotations that promote the
     maintenance of soil fertility;
(f) Field gene banks of vulnerable fruit tree wild relatives and
     perennial rangeland species will have been established,
     providing seed and root stock to communities both within
     and beyond the target sites;
(g) Community managed pasture nurseries will have been
     established on common land, providing seed and rootstock;