Global Crop Diversity Trust
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Global Crop Diversity Trust is an independent international organisation which exists to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. It was established through a partnership between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In 2006, the Trust entered into a Relationship Agreement with the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Agreement recognizes the Trust as an "essential element" of the Treaty's funding strategy in regards to the ex situ conservation and availability of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It also confirms the autonomy of the Trust as a scientific organization in raising and dispersing funds.
The Trust is assembling an endowment (trust) fund, the income from which will be used to support the conservation of distinct and important crop diversity, in perpetuity, through existing institutions. Crop diversity is the biological foundation of agriculture, and is the raw material plant breeders and farmers use to adapt crop varieties to pests and diseases. In the future, this crop diversity will play a central role in helping agriculture adjust to climate change and adapt to water and energy constraints.
The Global Crop Diversity Trust has offices at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and at Bioversity International (formerly the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)) in Rome, Italy. The organization is headed by Dr. Cary Fowler. An interim board is chaired by Ambassador Fernando Gerbasi (Venezuela), former chair of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Trust also has a Donors' Council, chaired by Peter Waddell-Wood (Australia). The organization has raised approximately $100 million. Main donors include: Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Germany, the U.S., and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (Australia). A number of developing countries have also provided support, including Ethiopia. And, contributions have been received from several private corporations and foundations.
The Trust is currently organizing a series of crop and regional conservation strategies that will guide and provide input to the Trust's work.
The Trust has made a number of capacity-building grants, and made its first grant for long-term conservation of a collection in late 2006. The Trust does not accept unsolicited applications for funding.
The Trust is involved with the Government of Norway and the Nordic Gene Bank in the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a "fail-safe" facility being built at Svalbard. This facility will provide a safety back-up for existing genebank collections, which are vulnerable to war, civil strife, natural disasters and even to equipment failure and mismanagement. The Vault has also been touted as providing a means for restoring agriculture in the event of a global catastrophe of some sort. It is designed to hold 3 million samples of different varieties (in the form of seed) of agricultural crops.
