Planning your summer vacation? Don’t miss out on the Nordic Outdoor Exhibitions about Crop Wild Relatives
Summer and vacation are coming closer, and you might be planning for what to do with family and friends these coming weeks. Why not head to one of the Nordic countries and visit an outdoor exhibition about crop wild relatives? You get to see beautiful places at the same time as you learn something new.
Crop wild relatives are plants closely related to our agricultural crops. They often possess a wider genetic base than those plants that have been bred for food production. Their traits may be needed when new plant varieties are developed to meet climate change, new consumer demands and changed agricultural practices.
“Here in Iceland, close to the Arctic, where climate change happens faster than in other regions, it is important to make sure that those genetic resources that can help us adapt our crops aren’t disappearing before we learn about how they can be used" says Magnus Göransson, researcher working on CWR for the Reykjavik Botanic Garden.
Project for Inventory and Advice
Reykjavik Botanic Garden is one of the partners in a cross-Nordic project which for several years has been focusing on crop wild relatives. The publication Nordic Crop Wild Relative conservation from 2019 includes the results of the two first projects. A continuation of these projects is now ongoing as part of a larger Nordic initiative about nature based solutions.
The purpose with this project is to closer study the most important Nordic crop wild relatives, for example regarding how they are affected by climate change, within-species variation and where the most vital populations can be found today. Seed from certain species will also be collected and conserved in NordGen’s freezers as part of the Nordic seed collection.
”The work done within this project is important but it is also important that more people become aware of the concept crop wild relatives and why they are important to conserve. At the outdoor exhibitions, often situated close to botanical gardens or other interesting sites in the Nordic countries, anyone can learn more – and I sincerely hope that a lot of people will take the opportunity to do so, says Anna Palmé, NordGen’s Expert at Crop Wild Relatives and Coordinator of the current project.