Technological and Policy Developments in Relation to Conservation and Use of Genetic Resources

The paper analyses the developments that have taken place in the political framework since the 1970s, in particular the history of conservation and use of plant genetic resources with regard to questions of ownership, access and legal protection. Special attention is paid to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It also examines developments with regard to technologies that have impact on the conservation and use of plant genetic resources, in particular advances in the field of molecular genetics and genetic engineering. The marker technology and use of genomics have enabled the development of tools to allow a thorough assessment of the genetic diversity found in genepools and resulted in significantly improved possibilities for the evaluation of germplasm, and thus, to a better exploitation of existing genetic diversity in germplasm collections. Furthermore, an assessment of the global economic developments that have impact on the conservation and use activitiesis made, especially from adeveloping country perspective. The impact of globalization can be observed on one hand in a drastically reduced number of private plant breeding companies, and an increased importance of genetically modified varieties in food production for the major crops, on the other. The implications for conservation of the use of genetically modified varieties are yet to bestudiedand policies arestill to bedeveloped to promote reliable in situ and ex situ conservation efforts. Based on the aforementioned analyses suggestions are made how constraints that have been identified might be overcome.