The IPGRI CWANA staff are involved in the formulation and management of several regional projects. The following proposals have been submitted to donors and/or are now under review for final approval.

Project on “Enhancing the contribution of neglected and underutilized species to food security and to incomes of the rural poor”

The project: Contributes to raising the incomes and strengthening the food security of small farmers and rural communities around the world through securing and exploiting the full potential of the genetic diversity contained in neglected and underutilized species witch will further contribute to:

• Greater nutritional security and income generation,

• Conservation of genetic diversity

• Enhanced use of local agro-biodiversity

• Improved post-harvest, processing and marketing

• Empowerment of local communities and women in managing biodiversity

• Strengthening of production-to-use supply chains

The three-year Project is the result of close cooperation with a diverse range of Stakeholder Groups, including farmers and NGOs form National Programmes of Central & West Asia and North Africa/CWANA (Egypt and Yemen focusing on Medicinal and Aromatic plants), Asia (India and Nepal focusing on nutritious millets) and Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru focusing on Andean grains).

Project Summary:

The purpose of the project is that farmers, institutes and local communities are provided with and use knowledge, methodology and policies to conserve globally significant in situ/on-farm horticultural crops and wild fruit species in Central Asia. The PDF B grant will support extensive stakeholder consultations needed for the design of the full GEF project proposal, conduct of steering committee meetings, training needs analysis, development of the conceptual approach to conserve to fruit trees, policy and legislation review.

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Project on "Participatory management of PGR in Oases of the Maghreb

This UNDP-GEF Project was first submitted in 1997 and finally approved in 1999. The project, which focuses on date palms within an holistic oasis ecosystem approach, will be carried out jointly by three countries of North Africa, namely Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and will commence in late 2000.The main objective of this project is to safeguard the diversity of date palm through activities that promote the use of local types with high quality values. IPGRI is the implementing agency for this Project. The Project Coordinator will be based in Tunisia and will be supported by a team of scientific investigators and administrative staff. The time frame of the project is five years. The project will address factors that at present cause genetic erosion of date palm in the Maghreb region; namely: 1) the replacement by materials from national programmes that are multiplying and distributing only a few varieties of trees and 2); market forces that are encouraging a farmers to grow only a few high value varieties of date palm to the exclusion of a wide range of other varieties. The project supports an integrated ecosystem approach to the management of the oases sites. The project focuses on activities that will broaden the number of date palm varieties, rather than promote higher yields or an expansion of market demand. The project activities are summarized as follows; 1) in situ pre-screening to speed up the process of variety selection for multiplication; 2) adapting techniques to multiply a greater range of date palm varieties; 3) develop alternative markets for date palm products; 4) develop national capacity to manage genetic property rights and achieve win/win partnerships; and 5) replicate project best practices at other sites.

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Project on "Strengthening community institutions to support the conservation and use of plant genetic resources in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan"

Description:

This project seeks to understand how changes in land tenure and rural institutions have affected the conservation and use of plant genetic resources in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, globally important centres of agrobiological and cultural diversity.

The project will work with farmers’ organizations and national institutions to examine impacts of recent changes in land tenure and decentralization of agrarian institutions to devise support for the local management of agrobiodiversity and further its contribution to livelihoods.

Project on “ Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dryland Agro-Biodiversity in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Authority” 

This UNDP-GEF Project was approved in 1998 and initiated in 1999.The implementing agency is ICARDA and technical back stopping is provided by IPGRI and ACSAD. The time frame of the Project is five years (1999-2004). IPGRI is involved in training activities in the area of public awareness and policy and legal aspects.

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