Genetic resources for food and agriculture play a crucial role in food security, nutrition and livelihoods and in the provision of environmental services. They are key components of sustainability, resilience and adaptability in production systems. They underpin the ability of crops, livestock, aquatic organisms and forest trees to withstand a range of harsh conditions. Thanks to their genetic diversity plants, animals and micro-organisms adapt and survive when their environments change. Climate change poses new challenges to the management of the world's genetic resources for food and agriculture, but it also underlines their importance.
At the request of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, FAO prepared thematic studies on the interactions between climate change and plant, animal, forest, aquatic, invertebrate and micro-organism genetic resources. Coping with Climate Change summarizes the results of these studies.
Introduction
Linda Collette, Damiano Luchetti, Dafydd Pilling, Anna Asfaw and Agnès Fonteneau
Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and climate change
Andy Jarvis, Hari Upadhyaya, CLL Gowda, PK Aggarwal, Sam Fujisaka and Ben Anderson
Animal genetic resources for food and agriculture and climate change
Dafydd Pilling and Irene Hoffmann
Forest genetic resources and climate change
Judy Loo, Bruno Fady, Ian Dawson, Barbara Vinceti and Giulia Baldinelli
Aquatic genetic resources for food and agriculture and climate change
Roger Pullin and Patrick White
Invertebrate genetic resources for food and agriculture and climate change
Matthew J.W. Cock, Jacobus C. Biesmeijer, Raymond J.C. Cannon, Philippa J. Gerard, Dave Gillespie, Juan J. Jiménez, Patrick M. Lavelle and Suresh K. Raina
Micro-organism genetic resources for food and agriculture and climate change
Fen Beed, Anna Benedetti, Gianluigi Cardinali, Sukumar Chakraborty, Thomas Dubois, Karen Garrett and Michael Halewood
Main conclusions and opportunities
Linda Collette, Damiano Luchetti, Dafydd Pilling, Anna Asfaw and Agnès Fonteneau