Modeling of crop wild relative species identifies areas globally for in situ conservation

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are the wild cousins of cultivated crops and a vast resource of genetic diversity for breeding new, higher yielding, climate change tolerant crop varieties, but they are under-conserved (particularly in situ), largely unavailable and therefore underutilized. This study analyses 1261 CWR species from 167 major crop genepools to explore key geographical areas for CWR in situ conservation worldwide. The paper identifies 150 sites where 65.7% of the CWR species identified can be conserved for future use.