Definition:
The conservation of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRFA) in medium- or long-term conservation facilities (ex situ in vito, i.e. in genebanks) represents a trusted means of conserving genetic resources worldwide.
The measure of trends in ex situ conserved materials provides a partial assessment of the extent to which we are managing to maintain genetic diversity available for future use and thus protected from any permanent loss of genetic diversity which may occur in the natural habitat, i.e. in situ/on-farm.
The two components of the indicator 2.5.1, plant (a) and animal (b) GRFA, are separately counted.
Animal genetic resources
The animal component is calculated as the number of local (i.e. being reported to exist only in one country) and transboundary (i.e. being reported to exist in more than one country) breeds with material stored within a genebank collection with an amount of genetic material which is required to reconstitute the breed in case of extinction (further information on “sufficient material stored to reconstitute a breed” can be found in the Guidelines on Cryoconservation of Animal Genetic Resources, FAO, 2012, accessible at http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i3017e/i3017e00.htm). The guidelines have been endorsed by the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at its Thirteenth Regular Session (http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/024/mc192e.pdf).
Concepts:
Animal genetic resources
Breed: A breed is either a sub-specific group of domestic livestock with definable and identifiable external characteristics that enable it to be separated by visual appraisal from other similarly defined groups within the same species, or a group for which geographical and/or cultural separation from phenotypically similar groups has led to acceptance of its separate identity.
Medium- or long-term conservation facilities: Biological diversity is often conserved ex situ, outside its natural habitat, in facilities called genebanks. In the case of domestic animal diversity, ex situ conservation includes both the maintenance of live animals (in vivo) e.g. in zoos and cryoconservation (in vitro).
Cryoconservation is the collection and deep-freezing of semen, ova, embryos or tissues for potential future use in breeding or regenerating animals.
The indicator covers materials under ex situ in vitro conservation.
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