Stato della biodiversità in Italia

Crop biodiversity in Italy: promoted actions and researches Agricultural genetic resources have been monitored on the basis of political actions and researches promoted for their conservation and use. Four lines of work have been followed: A – Regional Agriculture Departments have been required to furnish informative material and to indicate their laws regarding crop germplasm conservation. B – A formal request about plant germplasm safeguard researches has been done to SIGA (Italian Agricultural Genetic Society) members. C - A survey about national projects involved in germplasm conservation has been done. D – Regional and local programs of autochthonous germplasm safeguard have been investigated. Some Italian regions namely Toscana, Lazio, Marche, Piemonte, Umbria and Veneto have already realized on line germplasm inventories: http://germoplasma.arsia.toscana.it/pn%5Fgermo/ http://www.arsial.regione.lazio.it/portalearsial/RegistroVolontarioRegionale/Default.htm http://www.assam.marche.it/PaginaFrames.cfm.htm http://www.regione.piemonte.it/agri/biodiversita/orticolo/schede.htm http://www.agr.unipg.it/biodiversitaumbria http://www.biodiversitaveneto.it/ Three have been the national projects regarding crop autochthonous germplasm safeguard: a) “Agrobiotecnologie” Special Fund for strategic research development (Law 449/97) - Progetto scrigno (Development and Characterization of Indigenous Genetic Resources in Horticulture). b) Risorse genetiche vegetali – Project promoted by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and coordinated by the Istituto Sperimentale della Frutticoltura. c) “Agrobiotecnologie” Special Fund for strategic research development (Law 449/97) Valorizzazione di germoplasma orticolo italiano (coordinator: Istituto Sperimentale per l’orticoltura, Sezione di Montanaso Lombardo; Lodi). Several conferences were supported by the Centro Interuniversitario Germoplasma Mediterraneo (C.I.G.M.) since the early ‘90es. The last of these conferences “La Biodiversità – una risorsa per sistemi multifunzionali” has been held in Lecce (21-23 April 2008). Scientific researches and actions have investigated an extremely heterogeneous material for different purposes. Landraces were evaluated almost exhaustively when utilized to obtain PGI and PDO products while for accessions of minor species of local interest are reported only few agronomic traits or attempt of genetic characterization. A first step in crop germplasm safeguard has been promoted by those regions that have emanated an appropriate law for the realization of regional repertories of landraces and an “on farm” conservation.