Main Challenges and Actions Needed to Improve Conservation and Sustainable Use of Our Crop Wild Relatives

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are those wild species that are regarded as the ancestors of our cultivated crops. It was only at the end of the last century that they were accorded a high priority for their conservation and, thus, for many genebanks, they are a new and somewhat unknown set of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. This paper presents a detailed assessment of specific aspects of CWRs of direct relevance for their conservation and use and a brief assessment of the situation with respect to the use of CWRs. A number of recommendations are elaborated on how CWRs can be better conserved and used in order to exploit their potential benefits more effectively.