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Indicators: Do we have effective tools to measure trends in genetic diversity of domesticated animals?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2010

E. Martyniuk ,
D. Pilling  and
B. Scherf
E. Martyniuk*
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
D. Pilling
Affiliation:
Animal Genetic Resources Branch, Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Rome, Italy
B. Scherf
Affiliation:
Animal Genetic Resources Branch, Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Rome, Italy
*
Correspondence to: E. Martyniuk, Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. email: elzbieta_martyniuk@sggw.pl
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Summary

The need to provide policy-makers with succinct, yet informative, messages is widespread in biodiversity management, and has led to the development of various “indicators” that can serve this purpose. While global data on the status of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture (AnGR) have been made available in a number of publications, the issue of developing a global indicator for AnGR has come to prominence only relatively recently. This paper describes the policy background to these developments and reviews initiatives in AnGR indicator development at national and regional levels. It also outlines some of the issues raised at an expert meeting on indicators organized by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in January 2010. To date, AnGR indicator development has largely been restricted to Europe. Globally, options are restricted by the limited availability of data. The expert meeting favoured an indicator set that describes both the relative abundance of native versus non-native breeds and summarizes breed risk status. The former will require a new breed classification system that is acceptable to countries and applicable globally. The risk-status categories of approximately 64 percent of reported breeds are available in the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System, but a lack of regular updates of countries' breed population data means that trends cannot be described adequately at present.

Résumé

Dans le domaine de la gestion de la biodiversité, il est nécessaire de fournir aux décideurs des messages succincts mais informatifs, ce qui a eu pour résultat la mise au point de différents «indicateurs» pouvant être utiles à cette fin. Si les données mondiales sur l'état des ressources zoogénétiques sont disponibles dans un certain nombre de publications, la question de la mise au point d'un indicateur mondial pour les ressources zoogénétiques n'a gagné de l'importance que dans ces derniers temps. Le présent document décrit le contexte politique à la base de ces développements et examine les initiatives relatives à la mise au point d'indicateurs pour les ressources zoogénétiques aux niveaux national et régional. En outre, il expose brièvement quelques-unes des questions soulevées lors d'une réunion d'experts organisée par la FAO au mois de janvier 2010. A ce jour, la mise au point d'indicateurs pour les ressources zoogénétiques est limitée à l'Europe. Au plan mondial, les options sont restreintes en raison de la disponibilité limitée des données. Les experts, lors de la réunion, ont privilégié un ensemble d'indicateurs décrivant l'abondance relative des races indigènes par rapport aux races non indigènes et résumant l'état de danger des races. Le premier indicateur aura besoin d'un nouveau système de classification des races qui soit acceptable pour les pays et applicable dans le monde entier. Les catégories de l'état de danger d'environ 64 pour cent des races signalées sont disponibles dans le Système d'information sur la diversité des animaux domestiques, mais la carence de mises à jour régulières des données relatives aux populations raciales des pays fait en sorte qu'à présent, on n'est pas en mesure de décrire les tendances de façon adéquate.

Resumen

La necesidad de proporcionar a los responsables del diseño de políticas, a nivel informativo, mensajes está muy extendido en la gestión de la biodiversidad, y han llevado al desarrollo de varios “indicadores” que pueden servir para este propósito. Mientras los datos mundiales sobre la situación de los recursos zoogenéticos (AnGR por sus siglas en inglés) han hecho posible que se disponga de una serie de publicaciones, la cuestión del desarrollo de un indicador global para los AnGR ha llegado a ser relevante hace relativamente poco tiempo. Este trabajo describe el contexto político de estas medidas y la revisión de iniciativas en el desarrollo de indicadores para los AnGR a nivel nacional y regional. También se describen algunas de las cuestiones planteadas en una reunión de expertos sobre indicadores organizada por la FAO en enero de 2010. Hasta la fecha, el desarrollo del indicador para los AnGR ha sido en gran parte limitado a Europa. A nivel mundial, las opciones son restringidas debido a la limitada disponibilidad de datos. La reunión de expertos estuvo a favor de un conjunto de indicadores que describen tanto la relativa cantidad de razas locales frente a las foráneas y resume la situación de riesgo en las razas. Primero será necesario un nuevo sistema para la clasificación de las razas que sea admisible por los países y aplicable mundialmente. Las categorías acerca del nivel de riesgo de extinción de aproximadamente el 64 por ciento de las razas notificadas están disponibles en el Sistema de Información sobre la Diversidad de los Animales Domésticos, pero la falta de actualizaciones de manera regular acerca de los datos relativos a las poblaciones raciales hacen que las tendencias no puedan ser descritas adecuadamente en la actualidad.

Keywords

indicatorgenetic diversitydomesticated animalsIndicateurdiversité génétiqueanimaux domestiquesindicadordiversidad genéticaanimales domesticados
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Genetic Resources/Resources génétiques animales/Recursos genéticos animales , Volume 47 , July 2010 , pp. 31 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2010

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