Under normal circumstances, NordGen is part of and arranges several different meetings and seminars for the Nordic stakeholders concerning plant genetic resources. But just as in the previous year, 2021 was not a normal year and many of the planned activities had to be postponed, or reorganized to digital meetings, due to the pandemic. One of the exceptions was the stakeholder workshop within the Crop Wild Relatives project that was possible to arrange on site in Oslo in November. However, during 2021 NordGen continued to experience an increased demand for knowledge on utilization of the plant genetic resources from public and private research programs, that reaches out to NordGen for collaboration within utilization of the genebank collection.
International Collaboration
Preserving and distributing genetic resources requires international collaboration, and the foundation for this work is laid out in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), ratified by all the Nordic governments. To NordGen, as part of the global genebank community, international collaboration is crucial. Forums for this work is the Governing Body to the ITPGRFA and the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA), The European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) and the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD.