overview
Today, the planet earth supports a rich and diverse plant and animal life which have resulted from
millions of years of evolution. From the early days, farmers have been selecting plants and animals
for various reasons such as yield/size, adaptability and food value. By mutation and selective breeding
of plants and animals, thousands of varieties have been developed for different traits. Natural
selection has also occurred over the millenia, with many plants and animals evolving to be being
highly specialised for survival in specific environmental conditions. Each of these plants and
animals is thus a valuable genetic resource as it is a result of evolutionary selection, natural or
controlled, and as such contains genetic information about both the past and present.
Wild species of plants and animals are therefore important genetic resources which have the potential
to be important in future breeding programmes to provide plants and animals, which are resistant to
pests and diseases and are able to adapt to new environments.
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threats to diversity
The human global population is increasing and is expected to reach 8 billion by the year 2020. This
will place a huge demand on the earth's natural and cultivated resources to feed and sustain human life.
Already, increasing demands have led to a serious depletion in plant and animal diversity as a result of
many natural and semi-natural habitats being significantly altered or destroyed due to intensive
cultivation and development. The loss of global biodiversity has been identified and considered as one
of the most critical and important environmental issues of the past few decades. Added to this, modern
food production practices have encouraged the use of a small number of animal breeds and crop plants for
high yield production resulting in the loss of old varieties of crops and food plants.
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convention on biological diversity (CBD)
In 1992, the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Rio addressed the problem of loss
of genetic diversity and adopted the Convention
on Biological Diversity which Ireland agreed to implement in 1996.
The Convention provides for the preservation and sustainable use of the
earths biological resources to guarantee food security for present and
future generations. In Ireland, while all governmental departments have
a role in the implementation of the Convention, this job is mainly undertaken
by both the Department for Arts, Heritage,
Gaeltacht and the Islands (now subsumed by the
Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs), and the Department
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. The latter department has
responsibility for the promotion of measures for the conservation and use
of genetic resources for food and agrculture and is aided and advised by
a Committee on Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture, on which GHI is represented. Ireland's official response
to the Convention on Biological Diversity is dealt with by the National
Biodiversity Plan, which is implemented by the Department of the Environment.
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