ABSTRACT
Gene banks are repositories created by human involvement as an investment to safeguard against extinction in the worst-case scenario and loss of diversity in the best-case scenario. The conservation of plant genetic resources is seen as a societal insurance policy (Gepts 2006). Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is an industrial tree crop whose main economic returns are derived from the fermented and dried seeds. Cacao is important to many developing countries in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Indonesia and the Pacific. Cacao was therefore designated as a priority crop for conservation (IBPGR 1981). The centre of origin and diversity of cacao is in the Upper Amazon of South America within the
present-day countries of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil (Bartley 2005; Cheesman 1944). The natural flora in this area is under threat by various human activities. About 70% of the Amazonian rainforest in Latin America was converted into grazing lands (FAO 2006). Gene banks are therefore important to safeguard cacao diversity and to act as an expedient source for developing improved cultivars in the best interest of farmers and the industry. Zhang and Motilal (2016) reviewed germplasm groups, collections and diversity of farmed and wild cacao. They emphasised the low on-farm diversity in South East Asia and West Africa and the small number of wild clones that have generated the cacao industry today. Yet, with the exception of Morera and Paredes (1990), CacaoNet (2012) and Laliberté et al. (2012), there is an absence of recent work detailing the role of gene banks in preserving the genetic diversity of cacao.
