1. TOOLS FOR COMMUNITY
BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
Regine Andersen, Senior Research Fellow, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway
Béla Bartha, Executive Director, Pro Specie Rara, Switzerland
DIVERSIFOOD Final Conference, Rennes, 10 – 12 December 2018

2. Partners
• Regine Andersen, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway
• Béla Bartha, ProSpecieRara
• Isabelle Goldringer, INRA
• Emil Platzer, Arche Noah
• Beate Koller, Arche Noah
• Pierre Rivière, Réseau Semences Paysannes
• Riccardo Bocci, Rete Semi Rurali
• Thomas Mathieu, INRA
• Naino Kader, INRA

3. Background
• Community Seed Banks
well known in the South:
Origin in the 1980s
• Core objective: To maintain
plant genetic diversity and
provide access for farmers
who cannot find what they
need in the formal seed sector
• Often linked to participatory methods for
management and breeding of plant varieties and
populations and to empowerment of farmers
Li-BIRD
LI-BIRD, Nepal

4. Background
• CSBs in Europe have evolved as grasroot initiatives
from networks/organizations of farmers or
gardeners
• Represent an important contribution to the
conservation and sustainable use of crop genetic
diversity in Europe, and to make this available for
farmers and garders.
• Thus an important contribution to the
implementation of the Plant Treaty in Europe.
• Diversifood conducted the first Europe wide
survey on CSBs. A questionnaire was sent out to
around 200 potential respondents.

5. Initiatives
participating
in CSB survey
85 responses
received
l

6. Where do you see
the most important
achievements of
your CSB?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
in training,
education,
awareness raising
In the conservation
of rare crops
in involvement and
participation
in crop
improvement
in political work,
advocacy
in research
in social
innovations

7. What do you
consider the
greatest barriers
for reaching your
objectives
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Lack of financial
resources
Lack of manpower
Obstructive legal
environment
Lack of technical
resources
Lack of knowledge
Lack of land
conflicts or
opponents
Lack of publicity

8. What do you
consider the
greatest strength
of your CSB to
overcome those
barriers?
Open question;
answers clustered
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
enthusiasm - engagement -
endurance - volonteers - Fleiß
common vision
and values -
group power -
collective action -
solidarity -
friendship
Great, growing
acceptance -
sensibilisation of
the public - being
well known
good contacts with
media, public bodies,
other networks and
organisations
the ability to
improvise - to be
flexible - being
free and no
burocracy -
being resilient
Being small,
being local

9. SUMMARISING THE SURVEY FINDINGS:
CSB Initiatives in Europe are many…. and diverse!
• In their numbers per region
• In their geographic and thematic scope of activities
• In their age - from 1 to 35
• In their social structures:
• 25% still informal, others are associations, foundations, cooperatives
and limiteds;
• Most non-profit, some to minor extent for profit
• 10-10.000 persons involved in the communities
• Big variations with regards to available resources
• variations in stakeholder group numbers and priorities
• variations in crop species and numbers – not all deal with seeds
• different methods and infastructure – not all have seedbanks
• Different aims, triggers, role-models and approaches

11. Further tools – an overview
• Databases: Are an efficient tool for storing and managing
information on crop genetic diversity and to manage the seed flow
itself.
• CropMetaPop-software: A simulation-based approach to identify
how seed circulation, farmers’ practices and local selective
pressures interact to shape diversity structures within population
• Implementing Farmers’ Rights as addressed in the International
Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
• Multi-actor workshop in 6 EU-member countries with overall 277
participants from 25 dif. countries took place to promote dialogue
on enabling policy and legal environments connected to
biodiversity products.

12. Biodiversity management system: We examined 5 established CSB
and described how they are connected to the national pgr conservation system
Formal sector
Gene bank, (varieties conserved here
represent varieties that are included in
the National plan of action for
conservation of pgrfa)
Research (Agroscope, FibL)
evaluation, collecting specific data,
sharing knowhow. Using pgr from
gene bank and CSB.
Seed
Field 2
Seed
Field 3

14. Government
CTPS
GEVES
CTPS
SEV SNES
SOC
GNIS
Private
Companies
WIPO
EPO
UPOV
INPI
UFS
ESA
EU
FR
parliament
ITPGRFA / CBD (Nagoya
and Carthagena protocols)
HCB
FRB
Public
Research
(INRA,
CNRS,
MNHN, etc)
Gene
bank
RSP
MSP:
- Farmers
- Gardeners
- micorentreprises
MSP MSP
Semons la
biodiversité
IFOAM-EU
Participate to
Work with
InfluenceAsk Publish
patent
pbr
INOV
catalog
Market
MSP
CP
ITAB
CPVO
Constrain
LLD
ECVC
LVC
ISF
DGAL
BSSV

15. Trying to define CSB
A community seed bank...:
• Has somewhere to store seeds/propagating material or to
grow plant collections
• Is jointly managed by people involved, either as an
informal network or a registered organization or a
cooperative with more than one member.
• Is normally non-profit and part of the informal, or semi-
informal seed system, with roots in civil society
• Follows joint objectives, based on shared values and
rules, normally creating an own culture and identity

16. FOLLOW UP OF DIVERSIFOOD:
DYNAVERSITY (EU – Horizon 2020):
DYNAVERSITY analyses and describes the actors involved in
plant genetic conservation for agriculture in order to suggest
management and governance models and to construct new
forms of networking on the national and international level.
Suitable Seeds (Fridtjof Nansen Institute, fni.no):
Follows up the engagement of DIVERSIFOOD with the Global
South. DIVERSIFOOD organized several meetings, sharing
experiences from the North and South. Suitable Seeds aims to
provide policy solutions that better respond to the needs for
conservation of/access to, suitable seeds in fragile states
and states affected by rapid climate change in the South.

17. 17
Thank you for your attention!