302 • Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity 



The number of crop genetic resource pro- 

 grams in developing countries has increased 

 dramatically over the last decade. In part, this 

 increase reflects an awareness of the impor- 

 tance of collecting, maintaining, and evaluat- 

 ing plant germplasm as a prerequisite to meet- 

 ing future food requirements. Much of the 

 change is also credited to the International 

 Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), 

 which has played a catalytic role in encourag- 

 ing and supporting national genebanks. 



Ten years ago, only a handful of genebank 

 collections existed, primarily in industrial coun- 

 tries. As of 1985, 72 countries— 45 of them in 

 the developing world — had long- or medium- 

 term germplasm storage facilities in operation 

 or under construction (33). IBPGR currently has 

 agreements with 31 countries (25 of them de- 

 veloping ones) to serve as international base 

 collections for long-term storage of plant germ- 

 plasm. As the network of long-term collections 

 approaches its goal of 50, covering 40 major 

 crops before the end of the century, greater at- 

 tention will be focused on bolstering medium- 

 term collections, 100 of which have already 

 been identified. Facilitating medium-term col- 

 lections is particularly important for those de- 

 veloping countries where the costs and tech- 

 nical requirements make the establishment of 

 long-term facilities impractical. 



The operation and effectiveness of various 

 national plant germplasm programs is uneven. 

 Particularly disconcerting has been the failure 

 of some national programs to respond to an 

 IBPGR Seed Storage Advisory Committee 

 recommendation to rectify inadequacies and 

 improve scientific standards at existing facil- 

 ities (65). 



Increasing Technical Capacity 



The availability of trained personnel is 

 another constraint to conservation. The prob- 

 lem has been studied intensively in the Latin 

 American region and in Africa since the mid- 

 1970s (11,31,46,47,48,68). However, neither gov- 

 ernments nor international or bilateral devel- 

 opment assistance agencies have come forward 

 with sufficient funding to meet the needs out- 

 lined in these studies. 



For a total of 50 developing countries, there 

 are only six technical colleges established to 

 meet regional training needs for protected area 

 managers: at Bariloche in Argentina, the Cen- 

 tro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y En- 

 senanze in Costa Rica, the Ecole de Fauna in 

 Cameroon, the College of African Wildlife Man- 

 agement in Tanzania, the Wildlife Institute of 

 India in Dehra Dun, and the School of Conser- 

 vation Management in Indonesia at Bogor (44). 

 Most of these colleges need external support, 

 and all could be encouraged to augment bio- 

 logical diversity concerns in their curricula. 



The efforts of several U.S. Federal agencies 

 to provide training, technical assistance, and 

 distribution of technical information hold po- 

 tential for increasing technical capacity in de- 

 veloping countries. Those involved include the 

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National 

 Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service, the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration. Activities 

 have been outlined in several documents (e.g., 

 ref. 61). For example, congressional legislation 

 to implement the Western Hemisphere Conven- 

 tion directs FWS to devote attention to person- 

 nel development in Latin America. This devel- 

 opment has been accomplished through several 

 initiatives, with special emphasis on training 

 wildlife biologists, where possible, through in- 

 country workshops. The Foreign Service Cur- 

 rency Program allows FWS to provide train- 

 ing in Egypt, India, and Pakistan. Authorized 

 in Section 8(a) of the Endangered Species Act, 

 this program allows excess foreign currencies 

 to be used toward conserving threatened or en- 

 dangered species in those countries (25). 



AID and other government agencies have de- 

 veloped cooperative arrangements with several 

 U.S. universities, other scientific institutions 

 (e.g., botanic and zoological institutions), and 

 private conservation organizations. These ar- 

 rangements provide avenues to direct assis- 

 tance funding toward increasing technical ca- 

 pacity and training of country personnel. 



The University of Michigan, through fund- 

 ing from Federal agencies (e.g., NPS), has in- 

 ternational seminars that provide training in 

 areas such as park management, forest man- 



