biodiversity and its conversation

1. Conservation of Genetic Diversity
Activities like specific selection for harvesting, destruction of natural habitats lead to loss
of diversity.
Genes which get lost might be having many benefits, so it is important to conserve
diversity for human well-being and to protect a species from getting extinct.
In cases of drought or a sudden outbreak of disease when the whole crop is destroyed, it
is possible to grow genetically diverse and disease-resistant species by conserving
diversity.
There are various methods to conserve biodiversity:
•In situ conservation: It is impossible to conserve the whole of biodiversity, so certain
“hotspots” are identified and conserved to protect species that are endemic to a particular
habitat and are threatened, endangered or at high risk of getting extinct. E.g. wildlife
sanctuaries, national parks.
•Ex-situ conservation: Threatened plants and animals are taken out from their natural
habitat and kept in a special setting to give them special care and protection. E.g.
botanical gardens, zoos, wildlife safari etc.
• Using cryopreservation techniques, gametes of threatened species are preserved
in viable and fertile conditions for a longer period of time.
• Eggs can be fertilised in-vitro and plants can be propagated through tissue culture.
• Genomic library is a recent advancement to conserve genetic diversity.

2. Conservation of Species Diversity
Each species has an important role to play in an ecosystem. It is important to
conserve diversity because once extinct, we can not get it back. There are
many ways to conserve biodiversity:
•Biodiversity rich regions are protected as biosphere reserves, national parks
and sanctuaries i.e. called in-situ conservation. Protecting Sunderbans for
many endangered species like the royal Bengal tiger, olive ridley sea turtles,
mangrove species etc.
•Biodiversity hotspots have been identified, which have high species richness.
Total of 34 hotspots are identified globally e.g. Western ghats and Sri Lanka,
Indo-Burma and Himalaya are rich biodiversity regions of our country
•India has a tradition of protecting nature. In many cultures, trees and wildlife
are given full protection e.g. sacred groves
•Ex-situ conversation, where threatened and endangered species are
identified, taken out and given full protection and kept in special reserves like
botanical gardens, wildlife safari, etc.
•Gametes of threatened species are preserved by cryopreservation techniques
•Seeds of commercially important plants are kept in the seed bank

3. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines genetic resources as “genetic material of
actual or potential value.” Whereas, Genetic material is defined as “any material of plant,
animal, microbial or other origin containing functional units of heredity” (CBD, 1992)
AnGR includes the genetic resources of those animal species that are used, or may be used, for
the production of food and agriculture, and the populations within each of them. These
populations within each species can be classified as wild and feral populations, landraces and
primary populations, standardized breeds, selected lines, and any conserved genetic material
(FAO, 2000).
AnGR (farm animal genetic resources) is understood to encompass animal genetic resources
that are or have been maintained to contribute to food and agricultural production and
productivity. This includes livestock kept by pastoralists. Fish and other aquaculture, and
fisheries species and wild relatives of livestock are not included (Gibson et al., 2006).
There is consensus that AnGR conservation should ideally be in situ or on-farm, supported by
ex situ conservation (CBD, 1992)

4. Approaches to conservation of AnGR:
• In situ or on-farm conservation requires continued use of a breed by livestock keepers in the agro-
ecosystem in which the breed evolved or is now normally found. This includes both actual farms and
pastoral production systems. Continued management of breeding animals maximizes opportunities for
utilisation and the study of breeds, as well as supporting the maintenance of community identity and
stability.
• Ex situ – In vitro conservation involves the maintenance of endangered AnGR outside their traditional
environment. It includes cryo-conservation of gametes, embryos or somatic cells that have the potential
to reconstitute live animals.
• Ex situ – In vivo conservation involves the maintenance of living animals outside of the area where they
evolved or are now normally found, e.g. research stations or zoos. The difference between in situ
conservation and ex situ in vivo conservation is not always clear in practical situations.
(Source: Adapted from Gibson et al., 2006)
Knowledge, methodologies and products that can be used in animal breeding (quantitative and molecular
genetics, biotechnology, etc) play a prominent role in the on conservation, sustainable use of AnGR.

5. • The importance of livestock, the state of animal genetic resources, the reasons for their
loss, and objectives and options for their conservation.
• Methods for identifying breeds that are at risk and are therefore candidates for
conservation, including assignment of breeds to categories based on their risk status
• Methodologies that can be used to decide which breeds to conserve, assuming that
limited availability of financial resources for conservation precludes the conservation of
all breeds. It describes the factors that influence the conservation value of a breed and
methods for prioritizing breeds.
• How to choose the appropriate conservation method.
• How to organize the institutions required for implementing in vivo conservation
programmes.
• Design of effective conservation and sustainable-use programmes, with special
emphasis on the maintenance of genetic diversity within breeding populations.
• How to implement breeding programmes that combine conservation and sustainable
use, largely by improving the productivity of the targeted breeds.
• Opportunities to increase the value of breeds and their products in in situ conservation
programmes.
Strategy and action plans for conservation of animal genetic resources (AnGR)

6. Action plans for
conservation of animal
genetic resources

7. Biotechnological methods used for production and conservation
of animal genetic resources
(i) Cryopreservation: Materials such as cells, tissues, gametes, oocytes, DNA samples etc are
stored in a genetic databank for future use.
(ii) In vitro production embryos: Methods used in the production of embryos in vitro include splitting
and cloning of embryos, marker-assisted selection, sexing of embryos and transfer of new
genes into an embryo (First, 1992).
(iii) Cloning: Enhanced by nuclear transplantation, a method used to produce a large number of
viable identical embryos and offspring of desirable genotype in cattle, sheep, rabbits and swine.
The procedure involves the separation and transfer of nuclei of a valuable embryo at a
multicellular stage into enucleated oocytes at metaphase II followed by serial cloning (First,
1992).
(iv) Embryo Culture and Transfer: This technique is used to introduce fertilized embryos into
surrogate mothers. Sometimes closely related species can be used to produce the offspring of
an endangered species. The great majority of commercial embryo transfer is done with cattle for
strictly economic reasons since the economic value of production per head is much higher for
cattle (and buffaloes) than for other farm animal species (Serdel and Serdel, 1992).
(v) Artificial insemination: This technique is useful in livestock farming. Cryopreserved sperm from
selected males are thawed and introduced into ovulating females.
(vi) Intracytoplasmic sperm injection Here sperm from selected males are microinjected directly into
the oocyte.

8. References:
FAO. 2013. In vivo conservation of animal genetic resources. FAO Animal Production and
Health Guidelines. No. 14. Rome.
S.J. Hiemstra, A.G. Drucker, M.W. Tvedt, N. Louwaars, J.K. Oldenbroek, K. Awgichew, S.
Abegaz Kebede, P.N. Bhat & A. da Silva Mariante. Exchange, Use and Conservation of
Animal Genetic Resources Policy and regulatory options. Centre for Genetic Resources, the
Netherlands (CGN) 2006
Gibson, J., S. Gamage, O. Hanotte, L. Iñiguez, J.C. Maillard, B. Rischkowsky, D. Semambo & J.
Toll, J., 2006. Options and Strategies for the Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic
Resources: Report of an International Workshop (7-10 November 2005, Montpellier,
France). CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP)/Bioversity
International, Rome, Italy. 53 pp.
Uyoh E. A. , Nkang A. E and Eneobong E.E. (2003). Biotechnology, genetic conservation and
sustainable use of bioresources. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 2 (12), pp. 704-709