ABSTRACT
There are two major approaches to conservation of plant genetic resources: ex situ conservation and in situ conservation, including farming. The two approaches complement each other.
Ex situ conservation is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (UNCED, 1992) as “the conservation of components of biological diversity outside their natural habitats.” It involves the sampling, transference, and storage of target taxa from the collecting area and is generally used to safeguard species or populations that are at present or are potentially in danger of physical destruction, replacement, or genetic deterioration. The CBD definition of in situ conservation is the conservation of ecosystems and natural habitats and the maintenance and recovery of viable populations of species in the surroundings where the species have developed their distinctive properties (UNCED, 1992).
