Towards a practical threat assessment methodology for crop landraces

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Conservation Biology
• Genetics

Background:

• Crop landraces (LR) represent crucial genetic diversity, essential for crop improvement but facing significant threats like genetic erosion and climate change.
• The vast number of global landraces makes comprehensive conservation challenging and resource-intensive.
• Existing methods for assessing landrace threats lack standardization and widespread adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel, practical, standardized, and objective methodology for assessing threats to crop landraces (LR).
• To adapt and apply principles from the IUCN Red List methodology for wild species to landrace conservation prioritization.
• To provide a framework for prioritizing landrace conservation actions at various scales.

Main Methods:

• Collation of time-series data on landrace population range, trends, market dynamics, farmer characteristics, and contextual information.
• Comparison of collated data against a defined set of threat criteria.
• Assignment of an appropriate threat category based on reaching predefined thresholds.

Main Results:

• A novel, standardized, and objective methodology for landrace threat assessment has been developed.
• The methodology is derived from the established IUCN Red List criteria, ensuring a robust framework.
• The system allows for threat categorization applicable at national, regional, or global levels for any crop group.

Conclusions:

• The proposed methodology offers a practical and objective approach to prioritizing crop landrace conservation.
• Standardized threat assessment is crucial for efficient allocation of resources in landrace conservation.
• This framework supports the active conservation of invaluable landrace genetic resources against ongoing threats.