The Strategic Action Plan for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Crop Wild Relatives in Zambia provides a national framework for managing plant species related to cultivated crops, including their wild progenitors. In Zambia, these include wild relatives of key staple crops such as rice, cowpea (beans), and sorghum. The National Strategic Action Plan (NSAP) seeks to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of crop wild relatives (CWRs), prevent the loss of genetic diversity, and enhance their availability for crop improvement. It aligns with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), whose strategic framework for biodiversity conservation explicitly recognizes the importance of CWRs. In particular, Target 13 emphasizes the need to maintain the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and their wild relatives, while implementing measures to minimize genetic erosion and safeguard these resources, including species of socio-economic and cultural importance. The objectives are (i) to establish a network of active in situ conservation sites to conserve the priority CWR in the country; (ii) to formulate and implement the complementary ex situ conservation of CWR; (iii) to promote the sustainable use of CWR in crop improvement. The key strategic actions required for conservation of CWR genetic resources are (i) including CWR conservation in the NBSAP; (ii) making clearer and specific statements on CWRs in the various policy documents and development plans; (iii) integrating CWRs in natural resources management plans and conservation programmes; (iv) increasing financial resources to CWRs programmes; (v) including CWR' value in school curricula at all levels of learning; (vi) creation of functional and effective partnerships for conservation and sustainable use of CWR; (vii) developing national capacity for characterization and use of CWR in breeding in the country.
赞比亚 · 2016-01-01