Institute of Biodiversity Conservation
"Since the establishment of the Institute (former Plant Genetic Resources Center of Ethiopia) in 1976 systematic crop germplasm exploration and collection operations have been undertaken in the different administrative regions of the country, covering a wide range of agro-ecological conditions by setting priorities based on the economic importance, degree of genetic erosion, degree of genetic diversity, etc. of the crop species. About 90% (about 53,900 accessions) of the total germplasm holdings in the Genebank (60,648 accessions) consists of germplasm of field crops. Two strategies of conservation, ex situ and in situ, are followed in the field crop genetic resources conservation in the country, where ex situ is the long term storage of the accessions in the genebank and in situ is a community-based conservation of farmers’ varieties in different agro-ecological regions." [1]
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Community based in-situ conservation initiative
"A Dynamic Farmer Based Approach to the Conservation of Ethiopia’s Plant Genetic Resources Project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was initiated in 1994 addressing a neglected aspect of plant diversity that of indigenous crop varieties maintained by farmers in dynamic agro-ecosystems. This community-based in situ conservation project is designated to link farming communities and their varieties with the existing formal genetic resources conservation efforts of the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation by means of establishing community gene banks." [2]
