The role of local varieties in the context of biodiversity conservation
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2026-05-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski"
Abstract
In the last few decades, a huge number of old and traditional varieties have been replaced by new commercial varieties. Under these circumstances, an approach for biodiversity
conservation by using two strategies: in situ/on-farm and ex-situ preservation, represents a research priority. International collaboration between genebanks has become crucial in ensuring the global conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources in the framework of maintaining compatibility and interoperability in the European area. The Green Deal promotes ecological practices that have a positive impact on the protection of biological resources and support agricultural systems in climate change. The purpose of the study is to improve documentation and visibility in the national genebanks of Bulgaria and Slovakia due qualitatively exchange of experience and establishing a joint research plan based on their long-standing mission of storage and use of plant diversity. By expeditions for local accessions in the rural areas and international germplasm exchange using the Standard Material Transfer Agreement, the diversity of the National collections is increased, following the priorities of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030. The results of the project help valorisation of plant gene pool through open access to ex situ collections databases for promoting the role of local varieties in biodiversity conservation and meeting the farmers’ needs. The Bulgarian and Slovakian genebank collections are documented by FAO/Bioversity descriptors and published in the European catalogue EURISCO (http://eurisco.ecpgr.org). They are presented with a valuable amount of seed duplicates in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The research is based on the cooperation project DIGIVALPGR.
Description
Keywords
crop genebank, collection mission, germplasm exchange, passport database, information system, climate change