Reading through an old Rural Community Network publication, The Environment and the Farming Community in Northern Ireland (May 2000) and seeing all those frenzied Polish Bantams running around Ardress House prompted me to think about the extent of agrobiodiversity in Northern Ireland. The above publication refers to the Biodiversity Strategy Proposals of 1999 which identify one specific to agrobiodiversity. That proposal, Conservation of Genetic Biodiversity, highlights the need for a review of conservation arrangements for plant cultivars and livestock breeds in Northern Ireland. Having just returned to the north I am keen to learn as much as I can about the main actors and players in biodiversity but more specifically agrobiodiversity. Firstly, I would be extremely grateful if anyone could tell me whether the above proposal relating to conservation arrangements/strategies of agrobiodiversity in NI were ever pursued, and if so, what were the outcomes. What are the main organisations looking after agrobiodiversity in NI? What is the policy/strategy framework that is guiding agrobiodiversity and it's conservation in NI? Presumably someone has been tracking on-farm agrobiodiversity over the years, where is such information available? I would be absolutely delighted to hear from anyone working in the field of agrobiodiversity in the North.
2 comments:
Good questions all. What's apple diversity like in NI? Have you read about what's happening with the UK's National Fruit Collection?
http://agro.biodiver.se/2007/09/apple-genebank-in-trouble/
Also check out the more polemical articles which one of the commenters links to.
You might want to ask that any Irish varieties in the collections be sent back!
Thanks Luigi, what an incredible article, and equally interesting range of comments. I am not much of a pomologist (although I once worked for 6 months at East Malling Research Station, a major govt research station at one time and in Kent) but I found this brief history of the apple fascinating and the current 'management' arrangements for the collection scary. I must try to find out more about the history of the apple in Ireland and the extent of diversity. Great stuff.
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