1. CWR conservation planning in the SADC region
In Situ Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives in three ACP countries of SADC region
CWR conservation planning in the SADC region
Joana Magos Brehm, Hannes Gaisberger, Eve Allen, Shelagh Kell,
Mauricio Parra-Quijano, Imke Thormann, Ehsan Dulloo and Nigel Maxted
1st International Agrobiodiversity Congress - Science, Technology, Policy and Partnership
6-9 November 2016, New Delhi, India
SADC project co-funded by the EU and led by Bioversity International and with UoB, University of Mauritius, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries South Africa, and ZARI (the Zambian Agriculture Research Institute) as partners.
Overall objective
‘Enhance the link between conservation and use of CWR in three ACP countries within the SADC region, as a means of underpinning regional food security and mitigating the predicted adverse impacts of climate change’
Specific objectives
‘Enhance the scientific capacities within the partner countries to conserve CWR and identify useful potential traits for use to adapt to climate change’
‘Develop exemplar National Strategic Action Plans for the conservation and use of CWR (NSAP) in the face of the challenges of climate change across the SADC region’

2. IN THIS PRESENTATION... Introduction to the SADC region
CWR conservation planning in the region
Integrating national and regional conservation priorities
Next steps
Key messages
In Situ Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives in three ACP countries of SADC region

3. THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC)
Important diversity of wild relatives of: coffee, cucurbits (cucumber, gherkin, melon), eggplant, lettuce, millets, okra, pulses (cowpea, pigeon pea, sword bean), rice, sorghum and watermelon
Oryza longistaminata cf. (Graybill Munkombwe)
Sorghum sp. (Dickson Ng’uni)
From left to right, clockwise:
Population of wild rice (Oryza longistaminata cf.) in Zambia (source: Warwick or Graybill?)
Sorghum CWR captured from the edge of the crop field in Zambia.
Solanum panduriforme ripe fruits at a population in Plaston along the road from White River to Neslpruit_Mpumalanga 1-5 February 2016 (South Africa) (Livhu, SANBI)
Coffea mauritiana in Mauritius (source: Ehsan Dulloo)
Their importance is not well recognised: so their use is not optimal.
They are threatened in the wild: like any other wild plant species; intensive farming, tourism and urbanization are the top three main threats to CWR in Europe according to the European Red List of Vascular Plants published in 2011.
But even if they are threatened, their in situ and ex situ conservation is insufficient.
In situ conservation:
CWR are found in existing protected areas but they are not monitored and actively managed;
There are few genetic reserves that actively protect CWR (about 30 all over the world, like in Mauritius for wild Coffea spp., in Peru for wild potatoes, or in Armenia for wild wheat)
In termos of ex situ:
Although historically conservation of PGR (including CWR) has been mainly ex situ, there’s still a lot to conserve (e.g., less than 10% of the accessions reported by EURISCO, which is a search catalogue of ex situ collections maintained in Europe, come from the wild).
The SADC region (or the Southern African Development Community) comprises 15 countries (these in green) and an important area for diversity of wild relatives of coffee, cucurbits,...
Solanum panduriforme (Livhuwani Nkuna)
Coffea mauritiana (Ehsan Dulloo)

4. CWR CONSERVATION PLANNING IN THE SADC REGION
Development of food and beverage CWR checklist for the SADC region
Prioritization of CWR for conservation action
Identification of hotspots and priority sites for in situ conservation and ex situ collection
In this talk I will only address the first 3 topics

5. DEVELOPMENT OF CWR PARTIAL CHECKLIST
DATA SOURCES
Food and beverage CWR checklist for the SADC region
FLORA CHECKLIST
Harlan and de Wet Inventory [cwrdiversity.org – Vincent et al. 2013]
GRIN Taxonomy for Plants [ – USDA Agricultural Research Service]
CROP GENERA
SPGRC species lists, including taxa in the base collection
FAOSTAT [
Various other online resources
SPGRC = SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre

6. DEVELOPMENT OF CWR PARTIAL CHECKLIST
RESULTS
The SADC region contains a wealth of CWR diversity with > 1,900 spp.
Food and beverage crops with native CWR diversity in the region include asparagus, coffee, cucurbits (cucumber, gherkin, melon), eggplant, lettuce, millet, okra, pulses (e.g. cowpea, pigeon pea, sword bean), rice, sesame seed, sorghum, sugarcane, sweet potato and watermelon
Many other crops of socio-economic importance have wild relatives in the region, including several minor food crops and species related to non-food crops (e.g. herbs, spices, environmental, industrial, ornamental, medicinal, forestry)
Photos from left to right:
Coffea macrocarpa in Mauritius (source: Mukesh Ragoo)
Solanum lichtensteinii in South Africa (source: Livhu, SANBI)
Plant of Oryza longistaminata held by farmer in Uningi Pans of Mbala district, Zambia (Dickson Ng’uni)
Coffea macrocarpa (Mukesh Ragoo)
Solanum lichtensteinii (Livhuwani Nkuna)
Oryza longistaminata (Graybill Munkombwe)

7. PRIORITIZATION OF CWR FOR REGIONAL CONSERVATION ACTION
More than 1,900 CWR species occur in the region
Which species are the highest priorities for conservation action?
Species related to crops important for food and economic security
Species with greatest potential for utilization in crop improvement programmes
Photo: Sesamum alatum, South Africa (source: Livhu, SANBI)
Sesamum alatum (SANBI)

8. PRIORITIZATION OF CWR FOR REGIONAL CONSERVATION ACTION
60 food or beverage crops/crop groups reported by FAO in the SADC region
34 food or beverage crops in the SPGRC base collection
27 other cultivated food or beverage species in the SPGRC database
100 CWR species (113 taxa) – PIORITY CWR
Potential or confirmed uses in crop improvement
Exclude invasive taxa to the region
731 CWR species related to 75 of these crops/crop groups occur in the SADC region
In total, 91 food or beverage crops/crop groups cultivated in the region
Production data for 60 food and beverage crops/crop groups are reported by the SADC countries to FAO
34 food/beverage crops are included in the SPGRC base collection
27 cultivated species are listed in the SPGRC database
In total, 91 food/beverage crops/crop groups cultivated in the region
The broad gene pools of 75 of these crops contain 731 species that occur in the SADC region

9. PRIORITIZATION OF CWR FOR REGIONAL CONSERVATION ACTION
RESULTS
Coffea mauritiana (Ehsan Dulloo)
Vigna sp. (Dickson Ng’uni)
Eleusine indica (Graybill Munkombwe)
Photos from left to right:
Coffea macrocarpa – Mauritius (source: Ehsan Dulloo)
Vigna sp. – Zambia (source: Dickson Ng’uni, ZARI)
Solanum catombense - South Africa (source: Livhu, SANBI)

10. OCCURRENCE DATA ANALYSES IN THE SADC REGION
Collation and verification of occurrence data for priority CWR (110 taxa - 11,092 records)
Diversity analyses (hotspots, complementarity, ecogeographic)
In situ and ex situ gap analyses
Climate change analysis
Conservation recommendations
I will focus on the first 2

11. HOTSPOT ANALYSIS GAP ANALYSES
SADC CWR poorly conserved both ex situ and in situ:
50% not conserved ex situ
of those conserved ex situ, 40% have <5 pops., and 16% have only 1!
17% outside PAs exclusively
those that occur within PAs are not monitored or actively managed
Hotspots in South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar
Predicted taxon richness [SDM (77 taxa) + CA50 (36 taxa)]

12. HOW IS CLIMATE CHANGE PREDICTED TO AFFECT CWR DIVERSITY?
Change of taxon richness [(75 taxa) 2050, RCP4.5]
RCP4.5 -  2.06C (SADC)
Change of taxon richness [(75 taxa) 2050, RCP8.5]
RCP8.5 -  2.55C (SADC)
Temperature rise relative to

13. HOW IS CLIMATE CHANGE PREDICTED TO AFFECT CWR DIVERSITY?

14. HOW IS CLIMATE CHANGE PREDICTED TO AFFECT CWR DIVERSITY?
WINNERS
LOSERS

15. ECOGEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY AS A PROXY OF GENETIC DIVERSITY
Describes different environments of territory
16 generalist variables, Calinski method
CAPFITOGEN (
GEOPHYSIC
EDAPHIC
BIOCLIMATIC
Altitude
Topsoil organic carbon
Annual precipitation
Slope
Topsoil pH (H2O)
Precipitation seasonality (coefficient of variation)
Latitude
Topsoil silt fraction
Isothermality
Longitude
Topsoil sand fraction
Max temperature of warmest month
Topsoil gravel content
Min temperature of coldest month
Topsoil clay fraction
Topsoil TEB
As our aim is to conserve diversity within species because this diversity is what confers the ability of the species to adapt to different environments and hence this is what the breeders are looking for, we have produced an ecogeographic land characterization map for the SADC region which basically describes the different environments in the region and we assume that ecogeographic diversity is a proxy of genetic diversity. 16 variables we used (which are listed in this table) and used the CAPFITOGEN tools to create the ELC map.

16. WHERE TO CONSERVE IN SITU PRIORITY CWR DIVERSITY?
Conserve in situ whole range of ecogeographic diversity BUT populations that persist in the future
So we have looked at the impact of CC in species distribution and we also looked at the different environments in which each wild relative occurs. And how do we then use that information to establish in situ conservation priorities? Basically, we want to conserve in situ those populations that are most likely to persist in the future (like in this example, the arrows indicate populations in blue dots that occur in areas not impacted by climate change, the dark green areas). But we want also to conserve populations that come from diverse environments (like in this second map, as inidcated by the arrows)

17. WHERE TO CONSERVE IN SITU PRIORITY CWR DIVERSITY?
Conserve in situ whole range of ecogeographic diversity BUT populations that persist in the future
PA complementarity network:
133 PAs in 13 countries cover 89 CWR + 50% their ecogeographic diversity
Outside-PA complementarity network:
163 sites in 13 countries cover 21 CWR + remaining ecogeographic diversity
Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Tanzania - important areas for conserving CWR diversity predicted not to be negatively impacted by climate change
Top 10 PA = 126 CWR-ecogeographic diversity combinations (21% of total 616, 37% of those conserved in PAs which are 339)
PA complementarity network: 133 PAs in 13 countries cover 89 CWR + 50% their ecogeographic diversity (338 combinations)
Outside-PA complementarity network: 163 sites in 13 countries cover 21 CWR + remaining ecogeographic diversity (278 combinations)

18. INTEGRATING NATIONAL AND REGIONAL CONSERVATION PRIORITIES
ZAMBIA
(ZARI 2016)
But how?
SADC REGION
SOUTH AFRICA
(DAFF 2016)

19. TWO CORE LEVELS OF CONSERVATION PLANNING
Maxted et al. (2015)
We suggest to basically follow the same approach suggested in the European Concept for in situ conservation of CWR in Europe. In this approach, we have in one side the development of NSAP and on the other side the development of Regional SAP. At national level, each country develops an NSAP which is implemented through complementary in situ and ex situ activities undertaken by national agencies.
At regional level, the Regional SAP comprises an in situ network of regional priority CWR conservation populations backed up by germplasm collection and ex situ management.
Then the the two national and regional strategies are integrated into an Integrated CWR conservation strategy for the region as follows:
a. Bottom-up integration – in situ and ex situ national conservation sites are nominated for formal recognition as part of the integrated regional network.
Top-down integration ‒ in situ and ex situ conservation sites identified in the regional SAP are included in the Integrated network of national and regional sites and, if supported by the appropriate national agencies, integrated into the relevant national CWR conservation strategies.
National agencies in the relevant countries are responsible for the implementation of conservation actions for regional sites with oversight and support provided by national and regional PA and PGRFA stakeholders.
TWO CORE LEVELS OF CONSERVATION PLANNING

20. WHAT NEXT? Ex situ conservation planning and recommendations
Development of concept of the SADC Strategic Action Plan for the Conservation and Utilization of CWR
Feedback by appropriate regional stakeholders (SPGRC...)
Endorsement and implementation!
In Situ Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives in three ACP countries of SADC region

21. KEY MESSAGES SADC region contains a wealth of CWR diversity.
Hotspots of priority CWR have been identified in the region (Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania…).
In situ conservation network has been planned taking into account both ecogeographic diversity and climate change impact (133 PAs sites outside PAs).
DRC, South Africa and Tanzania are key countries for the conservation of CWR diversity predicted not to be negatively impacted by climate change in the region.
National and regional conservation priorities should be integrated into an Integrated CWR conservation strategy for the region
In Situ Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives in three ACP countries of SADC region

22. 6-9 November 2016, New Delhi, India
In Situ Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives in three ACP countries of SADC region
THANK YOU!
1st International Agrobiodiversity Congress - Science, Technology, Policy and Partnership
6-9 November 2016, New Delhi, India
SADC project co-funded by the EU and led by Bioversity International and with UoB, University of Mauritius, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries South Africa, and ZARI (the Zambian Agriculture Research Institute) as partners.
Overall objective
‘Enhance the link between conservation and use of CWR in three ACP countries within the SADC region, as a means of underpinning regional food security and mitigating the predicted adverse impacts of climate change’
Specific objectives
‘Enhance the scientific capacities within the partner countries to conserve CWR and identify useful potential traits for use to adapt to climate change’
‘Develop exemplar National Strategic Action Plans for the conservation and use of CWR (NSAP) in the face of the challenges of climate change across the SADC region’