Dead planet, living planet

CASE STUDY #19

Rock Creek and Ignacio Creek Stream Restoration, La Plata County, Colorado, USA

The effects of overgrazing near southwestern Colorado’s Rock Creek resulted in major erosion with banks up to eight feet high in some places. Biohabitats has conducted a feasibility study with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to address this problem through a series of four projects along the creek including bank stabilization, habitat and re-vegegation. Sequential project phasing accommodated funding cycles and provided opportunities to modify and improve restoration tech- niques. These projects were dependent on successful engage- ment and collaboration with the tribal community and volun- teers. To ensure local cultural and environmental relevance of the solution required modification of methods and approaches, selection of appropriate materials and species. Work is continu- ing to work with the Tribe’s water quality department on the res- toration of nearby Ignacio Creek.

Source: Biohabitats, www.biohabitats.com

CASE STUDY #20

Crop wild relatives – species or other taxa more or less closely re- lated to crops, that include most of the progenitors of our domes- ticated types – have made an extremely significant contribution to modern agricultural production through the characteristics that they have contributed to plant cultivars. Over the last 100 years crop wild relatives have become increas- ingly important as sources of useful genes. For example, they have contributed pest and disease resistance (e.g. resistance to late blight in potato and grassy stunt virus in rice which came from a single accession of Oryza nivara found in Orissa, India) and abiotic stress resistance. They have also increased nutri- tional values such as protein and vitamin content. The econom- ic returns from investment in CWR can be striking; for example, genetic material from a tomato wild relative has allowed plant breeders to boost the level of solids in commercial varieties by 2.4 %, which is worth USD 250 million annually to processors in California alone (FAO, 1998). Enhancing sustainability through the use of crop wild relatives The natural populations of many crop wild relatives are increasingly at risk. They are threatened primarily by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. Moreover, the increasing industrialization of agriculture is reducing populations of crop wild relatives in and around farms. They are often missed by conservation programmes, falling between the efforts of agricultural and environmental con- servation actions. A major global effort, coordinated by Bioversity International and supported by UNEP GEF to find ways of secur- ing the improved conservation of crop wild relatives is in progress in 5 countries (Armenia, Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uz- bekistan) in collaboration with a number of international agencies (FAO, UNEP-WCMC, IUCN, Botanic Gardens Conservation Inter- national – BGCI). Restoring wild crop relatives and using them in restoration has sofar received little attention, but may be crucial in order to meet future food insecurity in a changing environment. FAO, 1998. The State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agri- culture. FAO, Rome. (Adopted fromUNEP, 2009: The environmental food crisis).

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