World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	29 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE ON CROP DIVERSITY   The world could lose its crop diversity -- vital to food security -- if plant gene banks were not immediately safeguarded for future generations, Christopher Higgins, Director of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre, said today at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. Plant gene banks -- the safe repositories of crop varieties -- were inadequately funded and samples were already being lost, said Mr. Higgins, who was briefing correspondents on a report -- Global Conservation Trust and Crop Diversity at Risk: The Case of Sustaining Crop Collections -- released recently by Imperial College in London. He was joined by Geoffrey Hawtin, Director General of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute in Italy. Crop innovation and new strains of crops, resistant to climate changes and pests, were desperately needed for civilization to develop, Mr. Higgins added. The world must double its yields within the next 50 years, and plant gene banks were the building blocks for developing new crop varieties. Diversity was found in the wild relatives of domestic crops, such as potatoes or mushrooms, in farmers' fields, and in nearly 1,500 plant gene banks around the world, he continued. Those banks held 2 million distinct samples of genetic diversity in collections that had become much less stable than was previously thought. Resources to maintain gene banks had been cut back in 60 per cent of countries surveyed in the report, and long-term funding was urgently needed, Mr. Hawtin said. The report from Imperial College recommended that current gene stocks be effectively and consistently managed, maintained and distributed, that the collection be comprehensive and planned, and that stable funding be provided. The report advised that an independent global foundation should be set up to maintain and fund gene banks in perpetuity. In response to that recommendation, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research proposed last November an international treaty with a legal framework for sharing the benefits from crop diversity. Countries committing to that document would agree to conserve material mentioned in the treaty. The Group was currently trying to set up an endowment trust of $260 million, to begin a steady stream of income that would sustain long-term funding for the gene banks, Mr. Hawtin said. The trust would be set up as an independent entity under international law with governments as signatories. So far, Mr. Hawtin said, the Swiss Government had pledged $10 million to the trust, the United Nations Foundation $500,000 and talks were ongoing with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The trust had begun to move and would be aggressively pursued, he said. Ismail Serageldin of the Egyptian delegation to the Summit also attended the briefing to announce that his country would be the first signatory to the trust. He called on other donors to support the trust, which had now moved from words to action. Asked why gene banks were unstable, Mr. Higgins said that funding, which came from a variety of organizations, had become a problem. Many of the gene banks were located in unstable parts of the world, where periodic crises affected the gene banks. Responding to another question, Mr. Higgins said that one important commercial gene variety was coffee. The wild relatives of coffee had been lost from the Ivory Coast forever, he noted. Fiji had lost many species of rice from one of its centers, due to lack of money and cooling failures. Another correspondent asked who would have access to the gene banks. Mr. Hawtin said that farmers or anyone else wishing to would have direct access to the materials. The international treaty would set policies under which they would be accessed. Asked who would be funded by the trust, Mr. Hawtin said a series of eligibility criteria would be set up, which would include standards of gene bank management and willingness to abide by the terms and conditions of the treaty.   Press Conferences Summit News