Conserving genetic diversity

CGIAR scientists play a major role in collecting, characterizing and conserving plant genetic resources. Eleven of the CGIAR Centers maintain international genebanks maintaining a total of over 650,000 samples of crop, forage and agroforestry genetic resources in the public domain. These preserve and make readily available a wide array of plant genetic resources, which form the basis of global food security.

Genetic resources confer direct use values, indirect use values, non-use values and option values. In estimating the impacts of ex-situ conservation, we are faced with uncertainty regarding future use of the material which will ultimately determine the benefits from the conservation. Estimating these benefits under uncertainty is a complex methodological problem (addressed in this review)

Wherever the costs of conserving an accession are shown to be lower than any sensible lower-bound estimate of benefits, undertaking the expensive and challenging exercise of benefits estimation is not necessary to justify its conservation. See: "The marginal value of an accession". There are no studies attempting ex-post impact assessment of genetic resources conservation ex-situ, although there are a number of papers relating to the economics of genetic resources management. SPIA is planning a scoping study for early 2011 that will assess whether it could be productive to re-examine this area with new empirical work.

Historically the CGIAR's research investments have not explicitly focused on this as an objective, although there has been an increasing emphasis on this area, at Bioversity International and CIAT in particular. This report (pdf) by Smale, Mar and Jarvis (Eds. 2002) is an example.

An example of a study assessing the impact of the CGIAR's role in conserving genetic diversity:

A Zohrabian, G Traxler, S Caudill, M Smale (2003) “The marginal value of an accession”. Brief number 9 in the series: “Biotechnology and Genetic Resource Policies: What Is a Genebank Worth?” IFPRI / IPGRI
Download report (Bioversity website)

B Koo, P G Pardey, B D Wright (Eds.) (2004) “Saving Seeds: The Economics of Conserving Crop Genetic Resources Ex Situ in the Future Harvest Centres of CGIAR” CABI, 232 pages
Download report (CABI website)

A G Drucker, M Smale, P Zambrano (2005) Valuation and Sustainable Management of Crop and Livestock Biodiversity: A Review of Applied Economics Literature
Download report (Bioversity website)