Peter Giovannini
Project Coordinator
- Nationality: Italy and Belgium
- Language spoken: Italian, English, Spanish, French, German
- Favourite Crop: Durum wheat
Peter is responsible for the feasibility study “Towards an early warning system and atlas of crop diversity”.
Before assuming this role, he led the projects ”Mainstreaming the Global Crop Conservation Strategies in Plant Treaty Processes", “Breathing New Life into the Global Crop Conservation Strategies. Providing an Evidence Base for the Global System of Ex Situ Conservation of Crop Diversity” and conducted a gap analysis of ex situ collections for 22 crops for the Genebank Platform.
Peter leverages his expertise in plant genetic resources alongside robust skills in data science and project management.
Peter studied Biology (BSc + MSc), Ethnobotany at the University of Kent (MSc), and completed his PhD at the University of London with a research focus on ethnomedicine and ethnobotany. Before joining the Crop Trust, he conducted field research on local knowledge of useful plants in Mexico, Ecuador and Bolivia. He also worked for Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, coordinating a seed conservation programme in the Pacific region for Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership.
His current scientific/professional interests include metrics and indicators for the conservation and use of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR), analysis of composition and gap analysis of ex situ collections of PGR, the structure of crop genetic diversity in relation to geographic, environmental, economic and cultural determinants.