Institutional development for the management of plant genetic resources in Latin America

摘要

Whether consciously or not, man has been managing plant genetic resources (PGR) since the earliest times. However, it was only in the 20th century that the management of PGR was undertaken in a systematic manner. At the beginning of this century, two pioneer Soviet scientists (Bukasov, 1931 and Vavilov, 1951) identified areas of great concentration of the genetic diversity of cultivated crop species. The effects of these studies have been felt in Latin America, where action has been taken to identify and conserve germplasm for economic and nutritional purposes. Crop germplasm has been collected and botanical gardens established in several Latin American countries including Brazil with the Rio de Janeiro botanical gardens and Honduras with the Jardin Botanico Lancetilla. In the 1940s, the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Research (IICA) was established in Costa Rica with the mandate of collecting and maintaining the most important germplasm of different crop species. These PGR activities in the region have been supporting and contributing to the development and diversification of regional and global PGR programmes. Significant institutional development in PGR related activities at regional and global levels was also observed in the 1970s, which under the initiative of the FAO led to the establishment of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR).