October 2015 in Photos

10 November 2015
Marie Haga | Marie's Corner
October has proven to be the busiest month of 2015 for us all at the Crop Trust. We have organized events and activities all over the world – from welcoming forage specialists at the Secretariat in Bonn, to hosting journalists in Svalbard, to meeting our Donors Council and Executive Board members in Rome, and hosting two global meetings in Izmir, Turkey.
Online, the Crop Wild Relatives Project website, as well as the Genesys PGR portal, were re- launched, updated and enhanced.
We are extremely grateful to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, who since October officially is the Crop Trust’s Patron (link to resource library 976).
Now I kindly invite you to see a 15-image-and-caption summary that showcases some of our diverse undertakings in the month of October, as we strengthen our role in safeguarding and making available crop diversity, forever.

During the 6th Session of the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA, Marie Haga highlights the increased cooperation between the Crop Trust and the Plant Treaty, as well as the Crop Trust’s plans for its upcoming Pledging Conference.

Crop Trust website publishes Guest Op-Ed by ICARDA’s Director General. “We must all protect and share the building blocks upon which we can secure food security for this generation and for the gen- erations to come,” says Dr. Solh.

The 13th Donors Council Session takes place in Rome, Italy. For the first time in the history of the organization, the meeting is jointly attended by the Crop Trust Executive Board.

The Crop Wild Relatives Project launches its enhanced, updated website: www.cwrdiversity.org

The CIP Blog highlights the CWR Project: “One of the most exciting things about the sweetpotato project is that wild relatives have never been used in pre- breeding for any purposes,” says Crop Trust scientist Hannes Dempewolf.

The Crop Wild Relatives Project partners meet in Izmir, Turkey. From 37 nationalities, scientists working in collecting and pre-breeding efforts share their accomplishments, discussing also future goals and challenges.

In it’s 4th year, the Annual Genebank Managers (AGM) Meeting is hosted by AARI and GDAR in Izmir, Turkey. Scientists from the CGIAR international genebanks are joined by colleagues from the Greek, Dutch and Azebaijani national programs.

Marie Haga participates in ‘Seed Security for Food Security’, a DuPont Pioneer side-event at the World Food Prize. “It’s very hard to see how to deal with disease, climate change and increased production without crop diversity,” says Marie.

More than 140 articles are published in media outlets around the World, including CNN, The Guardian, NPR, the New Yirk Times, Newsweek, PBS, etc.

Seeds that had originally been sent by ICARDA to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault are safely delivered to Morocco and Lebanon.

From Bonn, Germany, home of the Crop Trust Secretariat, the staff wishes everybody a happy World Food Day.

On World Food Day, global efforts to preserve biodiversity receive a Royal endorsement: His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, takes on the role as Global Patron of the Crop Trust.

The Crop Trust Secretariat hosts forage experts who meet to discuss and develop a global conservation strategy

During the GB6, Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust, and Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director- General, Coordinator for Natural Resources, FAO, sign a MOU.

The Crop Trust launches new look for the 2016 Pledging Conference