Conservation planning tools

Conservation planning

Aim

CWR taxa can be conserved both in situ and ex situ, ideally the main conservation method being in situ backed up by ex situ conservation. The aim of CWR conservation is to maintain maximum genetic diversity of the species for future use. This can be achieved by carefully planning the conservation and by undertaking relevant and sufficient management and monitoring of the populations in conservation areas set for this purpose. Whether CWR conservation takes place in situ or ex situ, practices facilitating use need to be put into place.

Approaches

CWR conservation planning generally follows a widely used methodology including: defining the target taxa and target region; preparation of national checklist and inventory; prioritizing the checklist to select most the important CWR species to be targeted with conservation action; undertaking ecogeographic and genetic diversity analysis, identifying threats to CWR diversity, analysing in situ and ex situ conservation gaps to identify ideal conservation and collection sites and finally formulating a CWR action, management, monitoring and access plan.