The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are issues that have been high on the policy agenda since the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. As part of efforts to implement in situ conservation, a methodology referred to as community biodiversity management (CBM) has been developed by those engaged in this arena. CBM contributes to the empowerment of farming communities to manage their biological resources and make informed decisions on the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity. This book is the first to set out a clear overview of CBM as a methodology for meeting socio-environmental changes. CBM is shown to be a key strategy that promotes community resilience, and contributes to the conservation of plant genetic resources. The authors present the underlying concepts and theories of CBM as well as its methodology and practices, and introduce case studies primarily from Brazil, Ethiopia, France, India, and Nepal. Contributors include farmers, leaders of farmers’ organizations, professionals from conservation and development organizations, students and scientists.

Community Biodiversity Management : Promoting resilience and the conservation of plant genetic resources

The present study demonstrates utilization of 11 microsatellite markers to explore genetic diversity held in Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt. landrace accessions growing on farms in different parts of Korea and Japan and to assess their genetic relationships. All microsatellite loci were polymorphic and produced a total of 96 alleles ranging from 4 to 20, with an average of 8.7 alleles per locus. Of the 96 alleles found, a total of 15 unique landrace-specific alleles were observed at 9 different loci. The locus GBPFM203 provided the highest number of alleles (20), of which five were unique and each specific to a particular landrace accession. The occurrence of unique, accession-specific alleles presented molecular evidence for the generation of new alleles within on-farm collection of Perilla. The mean values of observed (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) were 0.39 and 0.68, respectively, indicating a considerable amount of polymorphism within this collection. A genetic distance-based phylogeny grouped the two Perilla varieties, var. frutescens and var. crispa (Thunb.) Decne into two distinct groups. Accessions belonging to var. frutescens could also be divided into two subgroups at a close genetic distance (GD = 0.432). The overall clustering pattern did not strictly follow the grouping of accessions according to their geographic origins. These observations are indicative of extensive germplasm exchange among farms from different geographical regions. The genetic similarity observed among the Perilla landraces may be useful for future Perilla crop variety identification, conservation, and improvement programs.

Evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships within an on-farm collection of Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt. using microsatellite markers

Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of Ghanaian and exotic cassava accessions using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers.

Amphibian populations fluctuate naturally in size and range and large datasets are required to establish trends in species dynamics To determine population trends for the endangered Suweon Treefrog (Dryophytes suweonensis), we conducted aural surveys in 2015, 2016, and 2017 at each of 122 sites where the species was known to occur in the Republic of Korea Despite being based on individual counts, the focus of this study was to establish population trends rather than population size estimates, and we found both environmental and landscape variables to be significant factors Encroachment was also a key factor that influenced both the decreasing number of calling individuals and the negative population dynamics, represented here by the difference in the number of calling individuals between years Generally, most sites displayed minimal differences in the number of calling males between years, although there was a large fluctuation in the number of individuals at some sites Finally, when adjusted for the overall population size difference between years, we found the population size to be decreasing between 2015 and 2017, with a significant decrease in the number of calling individuals at specific sites High rate of encroachment was the principal explanatory factor behind these marked negative peaks in population dynamics

Population trend inferred from aural surveys for calling anurans in Korea.

Gene set by de novo assembly of Perilla species and expression profiling between P. frutescens (L.) var. frutescens and var. crispa.

With the recognition of certain limitations of ex situ methods for conservation of plant genetic resources the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the 'Earth Summit' in 1992 highlighted the importance of traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities that are relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and gave considerable attention to on-farm and other forms of in situ conservation. Unlike semi-Static nature of ex situ conservation the in situ or on-farm conservation (OFC) is a dynamic evolutionary process. In developing countries like Republic of Korea, where there is a continuum between the use of traditional and modern cultivars, integration of OFC with already existing gene-bank activities in the country will be an effective approach for conservation and sustainable use of the country's crop genetic resources. However, very little efforts have been made so far in developing strategies for OFC, therefore, in this paper we describe the importance of OFC and strategies for its development in Republic of Korea. Surveys over the last 20 years have shown that the landraces of major crops have been almost replaced by newly bred varieties in the country. But some vegetatively propagated or minor crop species are still being maintained in the farmers' fields. We have identified crop landraces, which can be classified into four different categories from the OFC point of view. These are vegetatively propagated landraces, sexually reproduced landraces, landraces with improved varieties and landraces cultivated for the reasons of personal preference. The related issues on OFC including implementation methods from the point of national cooperative system in designated specific condition are also discussed to ensure the genetic diversity in the fast changing agro-ecosystem of the country.

V. R. Rao

Papers

On-farm conservation strategy to ensure crop genetic diversity in changing agro-ecosystems in the Republic of Korea