Conservation of traditional crop varieties

There are over 100 Dutch agrobiodiversity initiatives that are concerned with the conservation of traditional crop varieties. The Government of the Netherlands supports these initiatives, focused on the management of Dutch biocultural heritage, through the Centre for Genetic Resources the Netherlands (CGN). The CGN genebank, focusing mainly on vegetables and animal genetic resources, plays an important role in safeguarding genetic resources for the current and future generations of farmers. CGN is engaged in activaities including the development and maintenance of the knowledge-sharing platform ‘the Oerakker’, further development of the ‘Orange List’ for conservation varieties, support for the implementation of European conservation guidelines, regeneration of the last part of ‘Eternal Mash’ collection and its conservation under long-term genebank conditions. Moreover, CGN is involved in communication on biodiversity for better understanding of the conservation of genetic resources and their sustainable use.