Berlin, Germany
January 20, 2015
The Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust has marked its funding target to safeguard global crop diversity within the next 3 years by urging governments and private sector partners to “Invest today to eat tomorrow”.
Marie Haga (pictured) made the announcement at the Crop Trust’s First Global Stakeholder Discussion at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin, the world’s largest conference of agriculture ministers, visited by 1,200 international guests from the worlds of politics, business, science and civil society to discuss the central questions concerning the future of the global food system.
Crop diversity is essential for crop improvement and agricultural resilience. It is a prerequisite for food security and vital in the battle against hunger, especially in a changing climate. Without protecting crop diversity, the world is at risk of losing the raw materials needed to feed the planet.
The Stakeholder Discussion, held on January 16, examined how the Crop Trust is developing a global system for the efficient management of the world’s crop collections and for putting the diversity they contain to work for food security.
Founded ten years ago by the Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations and the CGIAR, the Crop Trust seeks to guarantee the long-term conservation of crop diversity. For the past decade, it has been spearheading the effort to secure in-perpetuity funding for the conservation of crop diversity in genebanks.
The Crop Trust is raising an endowment, the interest from which will guarantee the conservation of the diversity of key food security crops. This will ensure that these varieties can be used to develop new varieties capable of higher yields in varying climates.
The Crop Trust has raised over USD 180 million to date for the endowment. It is inviting governments, foundations, companies and individuals from around the world to join a global coalition to tackle the challenge of preserving crop diversity, by increasing the Crop Trust endowment to USD 500 million by 2016, and further to USD 850 million by 2018.
The Crop Trust has also unveiled its new visual identity and launched its new website today, a crucially important tool in communicating its vital message to policy makers and the general public.
The website, produced in collaboration with Epic Agency, gives visitors a fully-interactive tour of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a map detailing the impacts of crop diversity, crop collections, and the work of the Crop Trust around the world, vivid case studies on the impact of a reduction in crop diversity, a brand new video and a live feed aggregating relevant news and social media content. The website has been developed over twelve months, that had included a visit to Svalbard to provide a visual record of how more than 825,000 varieties of seeds are being preserved deep inside an arctic mountain.
The website aims to raise the awareness of the importance of crop diversity, while raising the topic on the political agenda. The interactive map, the educational video and Svalbard Global Seed Vault tour aim to bring transparency, understanding and appreciation of the work of the Crop Trust and the crop collections worldwide. The video has also been nominated for ‘Video of the Day’ at http://votd.tv/, a website which recognises the talent in moving image content creation.
Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, said:
“This is a defining time for the world’s crop diversity. As our planet manages the threat of changing conditions due to climate change, traditional crop types are producing ever-decreasing yields. At the same time, the global population continues to grow apace, and many of our international genebanks continue to face funding cutbacks.
“The challenge is neither technologically complicated, nor expensive. But we must invest today to eat tomorrow. As we look ahead, I call upon national governments, scientists and all who care about our future food security to join us in making a commitment to addressing this vital issue. This will not only guarantee the effective conservation of all the varieties of key crops, but will ensure that these varieties can be used to develop new strains to feed future generations.”
Benoit Rondeux, Managing Partner of Epic Agency, said:
“We are delighted to have worked with the Crop Trust to develop their new website. The site was designed with the clear aim of communicating the importance of crop diversity in the most vivid, intuitive and expressive way possible – for policy makers, scientists, farmers and the general public combined.
On behalf of Epic Agency, we wish the Crop Trust the very best in working towards its International Pledging Conference, and beyond.”
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