Conservation of crop wild relatives in Kyrgyzstan

Conservation of crop wild relatives in Kyrgyzstan

Partner: Missouri Botanical Garden
Years: 2018-2020

The project aims at conserving the threatened tree flora of Kyrgyzstan’s walnut-fruit forests, a unique ecosystem that contains many wild relatives of modern fruit tree crops. These tree species are important for the local economy and are also an internationally important genetic resource. Many are at risk of extinction.

The project will (i) enhance local facilities to support the propagation and storage of threatened plant species; (ii) implement a system for living collections data management for conservation, research, and outreach ; (iii) provide training and build local capacity to apply modern approaches to living collections development and management (iv) locate and collect propagules from natural populations of the project target species ; and (v) develop propagation protocols for the target species to support restoration projects.