Providing readers with information resources about PGR, agrobiodiversity, conservation and livelihoods.

Starting Monday 17 November, the Agrobiodiversity and Climate Change Project, supported by Bioversity International and the Christensen Fund, is hosting an online discussion to identify gaps in current knowledge about the effects of climate change on local communities and their use of agricultural biodiversity.
To find out more about the discussion or to sign up, [...]

An article in the New Scientist magazine reports on a study showing that modern commercial chicken breeds have lost over half  the genetic diversity of their ancestral lines (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0806569105). This is due to the small number of breeds used in crosses.
A more extensive write-up in Scientific American [...]

A story on ITN demonstrates again the value of preserving rainforest, indeed all biodiversity.
The story reports on the discovery in a Patagonian rainforest of a fungus that produces a substance similar to diesel. The fungus, Gliocladium roseum, converts cellulose directly to bio-diesel.
The potential application in the biofuel industry is obviously huge. It’s a shame that [...]

“Biodiversity and Agricultures : Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Research for More Sustainable Farming” is the theme for the conference that will be held this week in Montpellier, France.  It will be held over two days (4th-5th November) and the main topics up for discussion include:

Ecosystems and agriculture
Agriculture, biodiversity and society: the footprint and the drivers; North/South [...]

A new report has been recently published that outlines the possibility of farming seaweed and marine algae as a future green energy source. The report was commissioned by The Crown Estate and conducted by researchers at The Scottish Association for Marine Science.
The report details the potential of using seaweed to produce biomass for heating homes [...]

CAB International has announce the launch of their new internet resource: Environmental Impact.
The website states “This new online internet resource represents a single, comprehensive and authoritative source of information on the effects of climate change on the biosphere. It also covers other aspects of man’s damage to the environment such as pollution, deforestation, desertification and [...]

One of FAO’s flagship publications has recently been published: “The State of Food and Agriculture 2008?
This issue concentrates on biofuels and looks at answering the following questions:
Do biofuels threaten food security?
Will biofuels reduce greenhouse gases?
Do biofuels put land, water and biodiversity resources at risk?
Can biofuels help promote agricultural development?
How do we balance the risks [...]

“Where our food comes from. Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Famine” is the title of Gary Nabhan’s latest tome. Gary Paul Nabhan traces the journeys undertaken by Nikolai Vavilov.
Vavilov was one the first scientists to understand the importance of germplasm conservation and biodiversity. He worked and travelled extensively on collecting missions and he is [...]

The conference “Banana and Plaintain in Africa: Harnessing International Partnerships to Increase Research Impact” will be held from the 5th-9th October, in Mombasa, Kenya.
The organisers from the conference website state:
“We are pleased to announce an Africa-based conference will focus on banana and plantain across Africa: lessons learnt and the way forward. There is an urgent [...]

As more journals become available on line, scientists are tending to cite fewer journals and articles, and more recent articles, according to an article in Science (18 July 2008; Vol. 321. no. 5887, pp. 395 - 399; DOI: 10.1126/science.1150473). The author points to differences in how people ‘use’ on-line publications and how they approach print [...]

Most of us, when we carry out our weekly shopping, have no idea how complex our global food system is.  Much of the food we put in our supermarket trolleys has been produced and processed in locations or countries that are hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away. External environmental and community costs related [...]

The UN organisation World Food Programme (WFP) announced last week that it will start purchasing food directly from farmer associations in developing countries. This new initiative, called Purchase for Progress (P4P) will be piloted in up to 21 countries over the next five years.
Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of WFP states “Purchasing food in the [...]

A high-level congress on Biodiversity of Africa - Observation and Sustainable Management for our Future will be held in South Africa next week (29 September - 3 October).  The congress has been organised by the African-German Research Network BIOTA AFRICA.
Major topics that will be discussed are:

Observation System - Identifying, measuring and understanding the past [...]

The CommonCraft website has just published a short video that gives simple guidelines for searching on the web. It’s probably too simple for many of our readers — I guess you already know this stuff — but it is a good introduction to the sort of videos that CommonCraft produce. Their slogan is “We make [...]

Agrobiodiversity conservation and economic development is the title of a new book that will be published next month by Routledge.
It outlines current developments in the economics of agrobiodiversity and focuses its attention on the role agrobiodiversity can have for economic development. The book is divided in three parts:

Policy perspectives
Mulitple objectives, tradeoffs and synergies between [...]

The editor of LEISA Magazine on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture is seeking articles about initiatives that explicitly recognise the value of diverse landscapes, diverse ways of life, diverse crops and agricultural systems and which stand up against policies and developments that undermine an independent family farmers’ way of life.
LEISA accepts articles in English, [...]

It is evident that more needs to be done to assist the millions of people in Africa who are facing food shortages;  but interestingly enough the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the need to put the focus and investment directly with the smallholder farmer, who is the main food producer for many rural communities.
“Increasing investments in [...]

The latest issue of New Scientist (13 September 2008) has a couple of articles focusing on food and its impact on our health or on the environment.
In ‘Superfoods wanted’ (page 18), Matt Walker highlights the need not only for more food but also for food that meets our nutritional needs. This is a refrain that [...]

Interested in producing mini films on social or environmental issues?  Well the World Bank film contest is for you.
The contestants are requested to submit a 2-5 minute documentary film highlighting the social consequences of climate change in the following categories:

Conflict: As climate change results in scarcity of resources and economic and, in many cases, political [...]