S02 - Session O3 - French national coordination for conservation of plant genetic resources and their wild relatives: focus on horticultural species

Authors: Charles Henry Duval *, Audrey Didier, Marc Delêtre, Mariem Omrani, Bernice van Issum-Groyer, Virginie Bertoux, Fabien Masson

A wide diversity of stakeholders is involved in France in ex situ , on-farm and in situ conservation of plant genetic resources (PGR), including crop wild relatives (CWR), with varied objectives (research, breeding, conservation and valorisation of local heritage). These stakeholders, who include inter alia institutional or territorial organisations, private companies, volunteers or farmers, are partially organised through conservation networks, some well-established, others very recent. Officially created in 2016, the PGR national coordination committee is meant to support curators of PGR collections by granting them an official recognition by the French government. Every stakeholder who fulfills the seven criteria defined in the French regulation (Articles L.660-1 to L.660-4 of the French Rural and Maritime Fishing Code) is eligible for this recognition. In parallel, the objective is to identify PGR, including CWR, species that reflect part of France's historic, cultural and scientific heritage, and integrate them into the French National collection. The purpose of this collection is to preserve PGR in the general interest, with a view to ensure their sustainable use. It is organised under conditions that enable facilitated access to samples for any citizens, physical or legal entity, and to the international community in the framework of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Reources for Food and Agriculture. Several resources of Rosa sp. , Hydrangea sp. , and vegetable species have been recently added to the national collection and integrated into European database EURISCO. Coordinating PGR conservation efforts in France will help promoting synergies between stakeholders, favour knowledge sharing, and encourage the implementation of safety duplication or foster the creation of conservation networks around groups of species. It is also a way to share information on cross-disciplinary issues on plant variety registration and protection, plant health, access and benefit-sharing, which have an impact on the conservation, availability and valorisation of plant genetic resources.