Adopted by 109 country delegations at the International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, held in Interlaken, Switzerland on 3-7 September 2007, the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources and the Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources, which recognizes the need for prompt action to ensure these resources are well managed and address their erosion, are now both available on the web, in a single publication. The Global Plan of Action includes 23 Strategic Priorities that are grouped into 4 areas: characterization, inventory and monitoring of trends and associated risks; sustainable use and development; conservation; and policies, institutions and capacity-building. For each Strategic Priority, specific Actions are proposed and some of them are directly or indirectly related to applications of agricultural biotechnology, such as to "develop technical standards and protocols for phenotypic and molecular characterization" and to "establish or strengthen national and regional facilities for ex situ conservation, in particular cryogenic storage". See the publication (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish and with Russian forthcoming) or contact [email protected] to request a copy. In November 2007, the FAO Conference also adopted a resolution endorsing the Global Plan and the Interlaken Declaration.

06/12/2007