Rome, Italy,
25 September 2025
Botanic Gardens & Crop diversity Communities Join Forces
Partners from around the around the world gathered at FAO Headquarter in Rome today to announce an exciting new initiative aimed at protecting edible biodiversity for future generations: the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP).
“Innovations in plant sciences can help countries mitigate the impacts of the climate crises and biodiversity loss, and tackle hunger and malnutrition,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said in a video message on the announcement of the GCCFP. “Botanical gardens can play an essential role, as they are key to conserving the diversity of food plants needed for breeders and farmers, and are vital for achieving the Four Betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life, leaving no one behind,” Director-General QU added.
The Consortium will catalyze research on food plants, including regarding their current and potential uses, as well as threats to their persistence, and ensure that this information is widely available. It will promote integrated conservation of food plant diversity, including supporting the preservation of these plants in botanic gardens, agricultural gene banks, and other repositories (ex situ) as well as in farming systems and, in the case of wild relatives, natural habitats (in situ). In doing so, this collaboration will enhance the complementary roles of botanic gardens and agricultural gene banks.
“The (International) Plant Treaty is the world’s pact to protect and share food plant diversity,” said Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. “With the Global Consortium for Food Plants, botanic gardens are stepping in, bringing unique diversity of food plants that enrich our system,” he said.
The GCCFP’s work aligns closely with the objectives of the International Plant Treaty.
“We are thrilled to work with them to build a stronger global family, united for biodiversity and food security,” Secretary Nnadozie said.
The GCCFP will have an official launch in Lima, Peru, at the International Treaty’s Eleventh Session of the Governing Body (GB-11) in November 2025, during which the Treaty community will also have an opportunity to provide input to this new Global Consortium.
The GCCFP is a collaboration of a number of international partners, including Botanic Garden Conservation International (BGCI), Crop Trust, FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and others. It is the latest Consortium developed by BGCI, which mobilizes a network of institutions and experts to collaboratively develop and implement comprehensive conservation strategies for priority threatened plant groups. The GCCFP initiative is coordinated by the New York Botanical Garden.
Plant diversity is essential to food security, human health and nutrition, agricultural sustainability and cultural heritage. Yet the world is facing an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, accelerated by the climate crisis. By launching the Global Consortium for Food Plants, the botanical and agricultural communities are committing to a coordinated global effort to conserve food plants of all types.
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