Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources in Brazil

Brazil is a continental dimension country that is the world’s fifth largest country by area and has a broadly diversified climate. For these reasons, Brazil is a megadiverse country and is extremely rich in plants, animals, and microorganisms, which provide conditions to cultivate a diversity of crops, from temperate to tropical climate species, that mainly originated from other countries. Thus, Brazil has a remarkable role in plant genetic resource (PGR) conservation, including both ex situ and in situ strategies. The efficient use of genetic resources allowed plant breeding programs to develop varieties adapted to country conditions, and in association with agronomic practices, this has led Brazil to build a competent tropical agricultural system that provides a significant proportion of the food consumed globally. Several institutions (universities, research centers), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), farmers, indigenous peoples, and local communities conserve several crop species, their wild relatives, landraces, and other plant species with social and economic potential. In this chapter, we present a summary of the main activities conducted by different Brazilian institutions to ensure the conservation, evaluation, characterization, documentation, and use of plant genetic resources, as well as initiatives and policies aimed at respecting, preserving, and maintaining associated indigenous and local knowledge.