Institute of Biodiversity Conservation

Background

As part of the various forms of the biological diversity in Ethiopia, large area of the country is covered with great diversity of forage grass, legume and browse species indigenous to the country. These biological resources are the primary sources of animal feed which support about 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the country, and the potential source of the indigenous forage and pasture gene pool for improvement of the livestock feed. However, despite the importance, serious genetic erosion is taking place due to both natural and man-made factors. Moreover very limited attention has been given in the past for the collection, conservation, characterization, evaluation and sustainable use of the resource.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is pioneer in Ethiopia for systematic exploration and collection of forage and pasture species for conservation and research. Despite the cumbersome effort not more than 3000 accessions from different species of grass, forage legumes and browse species were collected from all ecological regions of the country. Considering the size and different ecosystems of the country these numbers are obviously too small to represent the existing diversity.

To augment the biodiversity conservation effort of the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation (IBC), Forage and Pasture Genetic Resource Conservation Department is structured and given the mandate for the collection, conservation, characterization and evaluation of indigenous forage and pasture genetic resources in the country. Over the past years the Department has developed short and long term conservation and research programs, assessed the status of forage and pasture genetic resources in the country, collected and conserved forage grass and legumes and established field genebank that consist of over 100 species of forage grass and legumes. On top of this to accomplish its mission the Department is looking forward to organize the necessary manpower and facilities and also making effort to establish institutional link with different National and International research and development organizations.

Major objectives

The department has the following major objectives:

* Collect information and conduct recurrent study on the distribution and diversity of major forage species across all ecological regions
* Research and identify priority pastures and forage species for collection, conservation and sustainable utilization.
* Enhance major collections in ex-situ across all ecological zones of the country
* Conduct characterization and evaluation of forage and pasture germplasms for further research
* Establish in-situ conservation sites, field gene banks and seed regeneration and multiplication sites in different ecological regions.
* Develop in-situ conservation guide lines which can be used by the respective users for the conservation and sustainable use of the resource
* Establish pasture and forage genetic resource database and networking for efficient utilization of the resource
* Organize the department with the necessary trained manpower and facilities.
* Establish strong collaboration with National and International research and development organizations.

Programmes

To carry out the department mission successfully three sub programs are formed based on plant type or family groups namely Grass, Herbaceous Legumes and Brose trees/shrubs.

Grass program

There are several centers of origin of grasses. For the tropical species the main center is Eastern Africa, from where many promising species and verities have been selected. In Ethiopia, the large number of indigenous grass species and the very great diversity within the species make the country a rich potential source of new and better tropical pasture grasses. However this enormous grass diversity is being decreasing due to continues grazing and stocking, fire and cultivation. Specially overgrazing causes the disappearance of the palatable and useful species. Hence collection and conservation of important grass species, improvement and sustainable utilization of the genetic resource is the main mission of the program.

Herbaceous Legume program

Ethiopia is known to be center of origin and diversity for herbaceous legumes such as the genus Trifolium, Vigna, Lablab, Neotonia, and others. However, the genetic threat of herbaceous legumes in particular is more serious due to the fact that it is more palatable and easily be affected by over grazing and over stocking. Realizing the need to quickly take steps to safeguard the genetic resource, the program work on the collection, conservation, characterization/evaluation and sustainable use of the genetic resource.

Browse trees/shrubs program

Browse trees/shrubs are the main livestock feed in the arid and semi-arid agroecological zones of Ethiopia. These zones are endowed with diverse species of browse trees/shrubs. However much remains to be done with regard to collection, conservation, characterization/evaluation and sustainable use of the resource. The core focus of the program is to undertake a sound conservation and research for improvement and sustainable use of the vast genetic resource.

Manuals and Guidelines

a. Forage and Pasture Genetic Resource Exploration and Collection Manual/English and Amharic (to be completed)

b. Forage and Pasture Genetic Resource in-situ conservation guideline (on preparation)