• Q: What is a Landrace?
• Q: Why are Crop Wild Relatives important?
• Q: What is the NBN Gateway?
• Q: What is a Crop Wild Relative?
• Q: What is EURISCO?
• Q: What is the PGR Forum?

Q: What is a Landrace?

A: A landrace is a crop cultivar that evolved with, and has been genetically improved by traditional agriculturalists, but has not been directly influenced by modern breeding practices. A number of landraces exists in the UK, where they are used for traditional applications (e.g, long-strawed wheat varieties which are suitable for thatching), but would not meet the value for cultivation and use as defined for a modern short-stature variety. In other cases they can survive on impoverished and unimproved soils which would not support a modern high yielding cultivar.

Q: Why are Crop Wild Relatives important?

A: Crop wild relatives are essential components of natural and semi-natural habitats, as well as agricultural systems, and are critical for maintaining ecosystem health. Their conservation and sustainable use is vital for improving agricultural production, increasing food security, and maintaining the environment. More information on CWR can be found at this link.

Q: What is the NBN Gateway?

A: The National Biodiversity Network (NBN) is a project to build the UK's first network of biodiversity information and is managed by the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The NBN gateway allows you to view distribution maps and download UK wildlife data by using a variety of interactive tools.

Q: What is a Crop Wild Relative?

A: A crop wild relative (CWR) is a taxon related to a species of direct socio-economic importance. Socio-economically important species include food, fodder and forage crops, medicinal plants, condiments, ornamental and forestry species, as well as plants used for industrial purposes, such as oils and fibres. More information on CWR can be found at this link. The following reference may also be of interest:

Reference: Maxted, N., B.V. Ford-Lloyd, S.L. Jury, S. P. Kell and M.A. Scholten (2006). Towards a definition of a crop wild relative. Biodiversity and Conservation 14:1-13.

Q: What is EURISCO?

A: The EURISCO web portal provides access to all ex situ PGR information in Europe. The EURISCO web catalogue automatically receives data from the National Inventories (NI), including the UK National Plant Inventory (which can be searched through this portal).

EURISCO is hosted at and maintained by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) on behalf of the Secretariat of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR).

More information on EURISCO can be found at this website.

Q: What is the PGR Forum?

A: PGR Forum has created an information system providing access to European crop wild relative data (www.cwris.ecpgr.org) which can be searched through this portal. CWRIS includes all socio-economically important species occurring in Europe and the Mediterranean region and their wild relatives; including food, fodder and forage, medicinal plants, condiments, ornamentals, forestry species, as well as plants used for industrial purposes, such as oils and fibres.

PGR Forum is a consortium involving 23 Partners. An Advisory Board and Stakeholder Panel contribute additional expertise. Partner representatives and additional contributors are participants who have attended PGR Forum workshops as a representative of a partner institute and/or as an invited speaker or observer, or have contributed to the project in some other way. The project is coordinated by the University of Birmingham, UK.

More information on the PGR Forum participants can be found at this link.