In situ plant genetic resources in Europe: crop wild relatives

This report describes the work of Farmer’s Pride project partners to increase knowledge about the
occurrence of natural populations of crop wild relatives (CWR), as well as the existence of active
in situ conservation actions.
A primary objective of the Farmer’s Pride project is to establish a network for in situ conservation
and sustainable use of plant genetic resources in Europe. To achieve this, we need to increase
knowledge about the occurrence of natural populations of crop wild relatives (CWR), as well as the existence of active in situ conservation actions. To obtain an overall picture of the location of areas where CWR occur, a list of priority CWR for conservation action in Europe was elaborated considering the economic importance of the associated crops, the potential use of the CWR for crop improvement, and the threat status of the CWR. The resulting list of priority CWR contains 863 taxa – 485 classified at the species level and 378 at the infraspecific level.