Biodiversity and biosecurity – you can’t have one without the other
In February’s edition of The Leaflet, my armchair comments closed with a note on the imminence of ‘Global Biosecurity 2010’, the international conference which exceeded our expectations in terms of both quantity (numbers of delegates) and quality (an acclaimed range of presentations). We all had our favourites but to me the stand-out was the number of industry representatives who commented on how well the CRCNPB presented itself. Well done to everyone!
I’m going to continue the global theme but cheat a little in this article. Readers may know that I serve as a member of the Board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), with my affiliation being as Chairman of the CRCNPB. When I make presentations about either the CRCNPB or the GCDT I invariably point out that biodiversity and biosecurity are inextricably inter-twined. You simply can’t have one without the other. The following words are from the latest communiqué from Executive Director of the GCDT, Dr Cary Fowler. The full version may be found on the GCDT website.
'Of Pandas and Peas
Days after the international community failed to establish legally binding measures to halt climate change, the UN launched the International Year of Biodiversity. Scientists predict climate change will directly imperil one-fourth of the Earth’s species.
In the coming months, you can expect to hear about charismatic mega-fauna - whales, tigers, gorillas, pandas, etc - as well as the diversity of species found in the oceans and tropical forests. You’ll be exposed to the organizations devoted to saving them. Most of all you will be told about the threat of extinction. The issue of “endangered species” has dominated the biodiversity narrative since the 1980s when the term entered into common usage.
To many people, “biodiversity” is almost synonymous with the word “nature”, and “nature” brings to mind steamy forests and the big creatures that dwell there. Fair enough. But biodiversity is much more than that, for it encompasses not only the diversity of species, but also the diversity within species. It includes not only wild species and their diversity, but domesticated species and their diversity.
It is the diversity within species that keeps species going.
People and Plants
Whether we consciously realize it or not, the biodiversity with which we are most familiar, and the biodiversity with which we have most intimate historical, cultural and biological connections, is that associated with food plants.
This diversity, this cornucopia of genes, has arisen and persisted in large part because of the ancient and ongoing tie between peoples and plants. Farmers and more formally trained plant breeders use the diversity found in wheat and other crops to improve the yields, disease and pest resistance of the varieties in use today. The process of varietal improvement is continuous.
Nevertheless, when we think about biodiversity, we rarely think about food.
What is it that makes one cuisine distinct from another? Which foods and spices are strongly associated with a particular cuisine? What makes Thai food “Thai” as opposed to Italian? It doesn’t necessarily have to do with where the crops were originally domesticated. So many key ingredients are immigrants!
The number of crops we use for food is impressive enough, but the diversity within those crops is particularly notable for both agronomic and cultural reasons. Like other biodiversity, however, it is endangered.
Plants and animals are not waiting for the next IPCC report to document global warming. Hundreds of scientific articles document the movement of wild species in response to climate change. But the disturbing fact is that many aren’t moving fast enough, and can’t. Others simply have no corridors of escape. All are potential climate change road kill.
Agricultural crops face a similar dilemma.As with pandas and many other wild species, the maize and sorghum varieties grown by subsistence farmers in Africa cannot and will not easily relocate. And staying where they are is hardly an adaptive strategy that inspires confidence. Even if such crop varieties were to survive, what would become of the farmers hit with devastating drops in production due to climate change?
Seed banks with their vast collections of crop diversity constitute a cultural corridor, a bridge through time that will help enable crops to adapt to climate change. The biodiversity that seed banks protect may not inspire our empathy as easily as pandas, but its loss would be catastrophic for many, many species.'
In context of the closing remark, a notable first has recently occurred. The Board of CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo) met in Canberra over several days in early April. The international gene bank for wheat and maize, CIMMYT has been a vital source of material for Australian plant breeders. Australia has been a strong supporter of the international centres – through bodies such as Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) - and has provided key personnel to a number of Boards. This visit recognises these vital linkages.
And to return to my ‘global biodiversity/biosecurity’ theme, CIMMYT is a key player in providing genes in the battle against the threat of wheat stem rust strain Ug99, one of the major global biosecurity threats of the moment.
