Letter from the Chair of the Executive Board

Welcome to a short review of the long and exciting year that was 2016. There is so much to talk about this year: new partnerships formed, more seeds collected, key knowledge and technology shared, all with a commitment that is more urgent than ever.

In a year that once again broke global temperature records by a significant margin, we did not feel that we could merely hold steady in our progress towards creating a global system to safeguard the future of our food. The future will not wait for us. Fortunately, we at the Crop Trust were not the only ones who felt this way.

Governments and private-sector donors sense the urgency, too. At our Crop Trust Pledging Conference in April 2016, they got together and paved the way towards doubling the size of the Crop Trust Endowment Fund to USD 300 million. This fund is enabling a conservation effort that is, by necessity, global in scale and endless in duration.

Press

Doubling of the Endowment Fund to Preserve Agricultural Biodiversity

Leaders came to us with enthusiasm this year to learn about the critical role of crop diversity, and to join their voices in support for the global system of conservation. At our Ministerial Luncheon on crop diversity, held in January during the International Green Week in Berlin, senior-level officials representing governments around the world showed how much countries value this irreplaceable resource.

Blog

Ministerial Luncheon in Berlin

Our scientific partners in crop conservation and research share this enthusiasm – in fact, they are the most powerful source of it. They work with seeds and plants every day and know how big a task, and how absolutely essential a mission, conserving crop diversity is. The Crop Trust collaborated closely with national and international genebanks all year to make the plant genetic material they work with easier to find, access and put to use, and to protect it for generations to come.

1 4

We on the Executive Board certainly felt the energy this year, and also the heat. We are committed to seeing the Crop Trust move forward and count ourselves fortunate to be part of this critical effort at a time when there is so much happening.

And a lot of great things happened in 2016. Our February Board meeting took us to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss some of the big issues – like the role of scientific research in our work, our continuing relationship with the CGIAR System Organization, and our role in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We were hosted there by our partners at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), stewards of one of the world’s largest collection of forages. Our next meeting, in October, was in familiar surroundings at the Crop Trust Secretariat in Bonn, where we shared a close look at the latest science, partnerships and plans that Crop Trust staff have in the works.

The Donors’ Council also convened in Rome in the run-up to each Board meeting. The first gathering was an opportunity for our donors to prepare for the Pledging Conference, while the second was a chance to take stock of the conference’s outcomes and look ahead to our future strategic directions. At this second meeting, the Council decided that Ms. Mary Ann Sayoc and I should continue to serve on the Executive Board. I am most grateful for the trust that our donor partners are placing in us.

While different in activities, each of the year’s gatherings was animated by the same mix of urgency and hopeful energy. As this Annual Report shows, it was a year to accelerate our work, but also to reflect on why we do it.

1 6