Mainstreaming Crop Conservation Strategies in Plant Treaty Processes

The ‘Mainstreaming the Global Crop Conservation Strategies (GCCS) in International Plant Treaty Processes’ project wrapped up in 2025.

The project made significant progress toward embedding evidence-based information on the status of crop conservation from the strategies in the decision-making processes of the International Plant Treaty. An important step was taken at GB-11 where the Governing Body of the International Plant Treaty agreed to set up an international technical advisory committee on the GCCS as proposed in a concept note prepared by the Crop Trust. The Committee will provide guidance on scope, format, timing, priority crops, and other issues related to the strategies.

As the project came to a close, the project team took steps to raise awareness by disseminating information about the GCCS in International Plant Treaty meetings and discussions. 

• Published Global Crop Conservation and Use Metrics  to provide insights into conservation of 30 crops.
• Prepared summaries of the GCCS tailored to different International Plant Treaty stakeholders.
• Held a dedicated side event at GB-11 to engage Contracting Parties and other relevant stakeholders.

The Crop Trust also prepared a technical paper consolidating information from the GCCS on technology transfer and capacity building that benefit Contracting Parties and support implementation of the International Plant Treaty. The paper was published as an information document for the 10^th meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Committee on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture held in Qatar in September.

The project also advanced efforts to identify key GCCS-relevant collections and notify the Treaty about them for inclusion in the Multilateral System. In 2025, the Crop Trust supported several of the Treaty’s Contracting Parties working to notify their Annex 1 collections as available in the Multilateral System.